The death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and architect of glasnost and perestroika, marked the end of a generation of Cold War leadership.
Key Facts
- Age at death
- 91 years old
- Date of death
- 30 August 2022
- Date of funeral
- 3 September 2022
- Role held
- Eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union
- Years in power
- 1985–1991
- Place of death
- Moscow Central Clinical Hospital
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Mikhail Gorbachev had suffered from a prolonged illness in his final years. He had been the last surviving leader of the Soviet Union following the death of Georgy Malenkov in 1988, and had lived in Russia since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, occasionally engaging in public and political commentary.
On 30 August 2022, Gorbachev died at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital at the age of 91, making him the longest-lived Russian leader in recorded history. A state funeral was held on 3 September 2022, after which he was buried the same day.
Gorbachev's death prompted widespread responses from current and former world leaders and politicians across the globe. As the only Soviet leader born during the Soviet Union's existence and the only one to die after its dissolution, his passing was noted as the close of a singular chapter in twentieth-century political history.