From ‘Repentance’ To Freedom – How Mikhail Gorbachev Got My Generation On Road That Leads Somewhere
deadline.comThe news of the death of the last USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday got little attention outside of the former Soviet Bloc.
Thirty three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has moved on. But for a generation of us growing behind the Iron Curtain, he changed the course of our lives and allowed us to pursue careers we never thought possible.When you type Gorbachev’s name into Google, the search engine’s top suggestion is “Gorbachev Pizza Hut,” a reference to the famous 1998 TV commercial featuring the politician who became the first and only President of the Soviet Union.In it, he and a little girl walk into a restaurant and share a pizza.
As older and younger patrons recognize him, they begin to debate in Russian, with an older man arguing that because of Gorbachev, there is economic turmoil and political instability, and the younger one countering that because of him they have opportunity and freedom.
Ultimately, an elderly woman chimes in, saying, “Because of him we have many things — like Pizza Hut.”Ironically, the ad encapsulates the complicated legacy of Gorbachev, whose policy of “glasnost” replaced propaganda with freedom of the press.
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