Bridgewater Review

Volume 7 | Issue 1 Article 13

Sep-1989 Book Review: Mikhail S. Gorbachev: An Intimate Biography Guy Clifford Bridgewater State College

Recommended Citation Clifford, Guy (1989). Book Review: Mikhail S. Gorbachev: An Intimate Biography. Bridgewater Review, 7(1), 25. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol7/iss1/13

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. BOOK REVIEW MIKHAIL S. GORBACHEV: AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY The editors of Time magazine, with an introduction by Strobe Talbott. 1988 By Guy Clifford

ecause few biographical works they returned to· Gorbachev's native strident anti-communist, was on occa­ have been written about the Stavropol region where their only child, sion upstaged by Gorbachev and in the BSoviet Union's dynamic new Irina, was born. The two decades spent view of some observers was pressured leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, this very there were marked by a steady progres­ into negotiating the INF treaty so as to readable paperback by eight Time edi­ sion to more responsible party posi­ effectively compete with the positive tors is a welcome and timely contribu­ tions. Summoned to Moscow in 1978, image developed by the leader of the tion. It is appropriate reading for any he was chosen as the party's General "Evil Empire." The two superpower person interested in a man who may Secretary by The Politburo only eight leaders demonstrated in their relations well be the USSR's leader for the years later. that Margaret Thatcher's contention, remainder of this century, if not longer. The man the dour Andrei Gromyko "I can deal with this man," applies to The authors trace Gorbachev's life said "has a nice smile, but teeth of them. Now that George Bush is in the from his birth in 1931 through his third iron," when he suggested to his fellow White House, he and other world summit meeting with Ronald Reagan Politburo members that Gorbachev leaders may understand Mikhail in 1987. Born the only son of Russian was the right choice to succeed Gorbachev even better. peasants in southern Russia at the time Constantine Chernenko, wasted no This informative book, introduced Stalin ruthlessly collectivized Soviet time demonstrating his strength, politi­ by Time Washington Bureau Chief agriculture, Gorbachev's boyhood was cal skill and reformist bent. Intelligent, Strobe Talbott, contains a helpful, six­ also coincident with the purges and well educated, seasoned, personable, page chronology ofevents in the USSR show trials of the 1930's and a brief articulate and self-assured, Gorbachev since the 1917 revolution. It also in­ period of Nazi occupation of his village embarked on an ambitious program to cludes seven pages of provocative quo­ during World War II, when he lived reduce nuclear arms, decentralize the tations by Gorbachev on a miscellany with his grandparents while his father economy (Perestroika) and increase of topics, among them Glasnost and served in the army. Nonetheless, he intellectual, artistic and social freedom Perestroika. The book is usefully in­ received a public education and in his (Glasnost). Glasnost and Perestroika dexed, and its sixteen pages of photo­ early teens made his contribution to are new and becoming better under­ graphs add interest for the reader. the "Great Patriotic War" by working stood in his country as well as in the Although the chapters were individu­ as a combine harvester operator. His West, and are proving to be more than ally written by six of the Time editors, activity in the Komsomol, the Commu­ just slogans. this poses no problem to the reader. nist youth organization, and his work It is too early to say where all the And finally, this book is a first for in agriculture earned him the Red ferment will lead, but the energetic, Time, having been conceived after the Banner of Labor, a prestigious award, relatively young (fifty-seven) and com­ magazine chose Mikhail Gorbachev as and the support of local party officials. mitted Communist leader has, in the its "Man of the Year" in 1987. The In turn, he won admission at age words of the editor of Time, "given the editors, each with impressive individual nineteen to Moscow State University Soviet Union, its allies and its enemies credentials, did a fine job in expanding where he studied law, continued his a gift they had not received from a on their original portrait of the current Komsomol activities and met and mar­ Soviet leader in recent memory: a Soviet leader. • ried his wife, Raisa. Upon graduation measure of hope." Ronald Reagan, a

25 GUY CLIFFORD is a Professor of Political Science