The last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, died Tuesday at the age of 91.Russian news agencies reported the news based on information from Moscow’s Central Clinic Hospital.Gorbachev’s office had earlier said that he was undergoing treatment at the hospital.Gorbachev became the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, in March 1985.He was in power for just over six years.But Gorbachev brought changes that ended the nuclear confrontation of the Cold War with the United States and remade the map of Europe.As general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, he had set out to reform the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms.But his reforms went out of control.His policy of “glasnost,” or free speech, led to criticism of the party and the state.It also led to national movements in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other places.
