Mikhail Gorbachev
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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the C
Gorbachev in 1987
Gorbachev and his Ukrainian maternal grandparents, late 1930s
Gorbachev on a visit to East Germany in 1966
Gorbachev (right) with his mentor Yuri Andropov in 1973
Konstantin Chernenko
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Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician who served as the de jure leader of the Soviet Union from February 1984 until his death in March 1985.
Mikhail Gorbachev
…year and as a voting member in 1980. Three years after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary. Although committed to preserving the Soviet state and its Marxist–Leninist principles…
Chernenko in 1984
Chernenko as a Soviet frontier guard in 1930
Chernenko in 1962
Chernenko (left) posing for a photo with his longtime patron, Leonid Brezhnev, and Fidel Castro in 1981.