Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the leaders of Russia while it was still Communist, and he helped the country tuen Democratic and Capitalist in a big way. He decided that keeping the country in the dark wasn't helping anyone, so he started the policy of "glasnost". Basically this let people let their ideas be heard, and it stopped the silence of opinions. He also introduced another policy called "perestroika". That basically means that people could speak freely about what they thought about the economy and the country. He also gave the people much more power, he stopped the government from regulating everything that workers and farmers did, and he let them be on their own. He also introduced the policy of letting the people vote for their leader, something that really helped the country become Democratic. Without Mikhail Gorbachev, the people in the Soviet Union would have had a lot less power, and Communism would have gone on for much longer.