In my lifetime no one person has had the impact on the world that Mikhail Gorbachev, who died Aug. 30 at 91, did. Though Vladimir Putin would attempt to pull down the digital blinds, the rolling back ...

NEW YORK (AP) — One stood for freedom, openness, peace and closer ties with the outside world. The other is jailing critics, muzzling journalists, pushing his country deeper into isolation and waging ...

With the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, an era characterized by change and reduced international tensions—from the reform and openness promised by perestroika and glasnost to the dissolution of the ...

The paradox of Mikhail Gorbachev’s major accomplishments is that none was intentional—not the destruction of the Soviet Union, not the demise of socialist ideology, not the independence of formerly ...

The Soviet Union’s sudden collapse shocked the world because few expected one of the most powerful empires on Earth to unravel so quickly. Decades of economic stagnation, shortages, repression, failed ...

For Mikhail Gorbachev, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster was a teaching moment. Coming one year after he became the Soviet Union’s top leader, the disaster was used by Gorbachev to force through his ...

As radiation spread across Europe in April 1986, so did the truth about a political system built on silence. Four decades on, RFI spoke to history and politics professor Oleg Kobtzeff about how the ...

With the end of the 12 day war, the question of regime change in Iran remains central. There are many scenarios, highlighting different factors and views. Analysts contrast the sweeping 1979 ...

When word came last week that Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last President of the Soviet Union, had died, it was front-page news in the West and a matter of studied indifference in official Moscow.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Some historical events are so catastrophic they resist comprehension. And yet they compel us to try to understand them, again and ...