Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present.

We still live with this unbelievable threat over our heads of nuclear war. I mean, are we stupid? Do we think that the nuclear threat has gone, that the nuclear destruction of the planet is not imminent? It's a delusion to think it's gone away.

On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union, and within a few weeks the full-scale reformation he attempted to carry out both inside his country and in its cold war relations with the West, particularly the United States, began to unfold.

The essential meaning of perestroika for Gorbachev and his supporters was creating and acting on alternatives to failed and dangerous policies at home and abroad.

Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

I left Russia in 1993 optimistic that democracy had taken hold despite the obstacles.

My feeling is that it's a misreading of history to say that, as the Reagan supporters do, that Reagan won the Cold War.

At the height of the Cold War, when Ronald Reagan was president, the Soviets and their allies and satellites did not shirk human rights debates with the West. They had their arguments ready.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, decisions made by President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev could have plunged both countries into thermonuclear war.

I'm still bothered by the threat of nuclear war.

It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.

The human species really could have faced global thermonuclear war. During seventy years of Cold War we grew used to it.

I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.

The atomic issue was a natural path into political issues.

Perestroika is our last chance. If we stop, it will be our death.

Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, miscalculation or madness.

The Cold War is Over

The combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons can destroy nations.

A missile is a missile. It makes no great difference whether you are killed by a missile from the Soviet Union or Cuba.

To me, nuclear weapons are the secret crisis of our time. Frankly, everyone needs to reread John Hersey's 'Hiroshima.'

Reagan's defense buildup and SDI, so ridiculed at the time, pressed Gorbachev, while his economy was collapsing, to make arms deals and improve relations with the West, which contributed to the unraveling of his empire.

They said Reagan was too dangerous. It was Reagan who ended the Soviet Union without firing a shot.

I would like to meet Mikhail Gorbachev. I think it would be great to sit in a room with him...and try to make peace.

This is the reality of nuclear weapons: they may trigger a world war; a war which, unlike previous ones, destroys all of civilization.

Some people believe that the nuclear bomb should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, since it scared the major powers away from war by equating it with doomsday.