Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born in 1931 in the Stavropol Territory of Russia. A graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow State University he also studied at the Stavropol Agricultural Institute.

He started his political career when he joined the CPSU in 1952. He became the Deputy Head of the Department of Propaganda for the Stavropol Komsomol Territorial Committee in 1955 and held several positions, mainly as First and Second Secretary to various committee’s for the Stavropol Territory, in the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s as well as being a delegate to the CPSU Congress on six different occasions during the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was from 1970 onwards that Mikhail Gorbachev became involved in Russia’s political arena at a higher level.

From 1970 to 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev was the Deputy Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. as well as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet Union between 1984 and 1985. Between 1971 and 1991 he was a member of the CPSU Central Committee and was Secretary for Agriculture between 1978 and 1985 when he took the position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee until 1991.

He was elected to the Congress of the People’s Deputies of the U.S.S.R in 1989 and became President of Russia in 1990. In the same year Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize.

He has been the Head of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies since 1992 and has been Head of the International Green Cross/Green Crescent since 1993.

Mikhail Gorbachev is joint recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award, the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in 1992 and became an Honorary Citizen of Berlin in the same year as well as a Freeman of Aberdeen. He has been awarded the Urania-Medaille (Berlin) in 1996 and the Order of Lenin on three separate occasions.

In 2005 he was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for his role in re-unification of Germany.