Dear Mikail Gorbechev:
c/o: Old Soviet Retirement Home
I understand you think U.S. – Russian relations are at a tipping point and I’m not going to argue your point. But I must say I was surprised reading your interview in the Christian Science Monitor. Not because of its content, but because the article existed. I am going to give you a history lesson about former Soviet premieres and see if you notice a pattern. Warning, you will be tested at the end:
Vladimir Lenin – Led the Soviet Union from its creation to his death in 1924.
Joseph Stalin – Led the Soviet Union from 1924 to his death in 1953.
Georgy Malenkov – Leader for just under 2 years. Lost power struggle to Khrushchev, stripped of membership in the Communist Party, promptly exiled to Ust'-Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan. Died in 1988.
Nikita Khrushchev- Led the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1964. Forced into retirement in power struggle with Leonid Brezhnev, was stripped of mention in Soviet history books and made a “non-person” until his death in 1971.
Leonid Brezhnev – Led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982.
Yuri Andropov – Let the Soviet Union from 1982 until his death in 1984.
Konstantin Chernenko – Led the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death in 1985.
Mikhail Gorbachev – Led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.
Pop quiz Mikhail, how many Soviet leaders (a) had a retirement? And (b) spent it moving freely in society? I’m not trying to quiet your ideas, I’m just saying you may want to check yourself before you comment on a system that Putin seems bent on re-creating.
(Don't call me a hater, I like Gorbechev. I don't want him to end up on the wrong end of a Polonium-210 Cocktail.)