Mikhail Gorbachev (Raise the Banner!)

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 - 29 December 1989 ) was a Soviet politician. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1989. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until 1989, serving as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989. Ideologically a socialist, he initially adhered to Marxism-Leninism.