As a student he wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo

Despite law not being a very popular subject in the Soviet Union at the time, Gorbachev enrolled in Moscow's law school in 1950. He had a reputation for speaking up in class and serving as a mediator in times of tension. He demonstrated his willingness to challenge Soviet authority on a number of occasions. He disagreed with the Soviet legal doctrine that held that confessions implied guilt since confessions may be coerced.

Gorbachev joined the Communist Party as a candidate member in June 1950. Additionally, he applied to study law at Moscow State University (MSU), which at the time was the most prestigious institution in the nation. Due to his worker-peasant ancestry and holding of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, they likely accepted him without asking for an exam. His decision to study law was exceptional because at the time, Soviet society did not value legal studies. He left his home region for the first time at the age of 19 when he took a train to Moscow.

Gorbachev lived in the city at a dorm in the Sokolniki District with other MSU students. He and other students from the countryside were at odds with their Moscow classmates, but he quickly began to fit in. His arduous work habits and frequent late-night hours are remembered by his fellow classmates. He developed a reputation for mediating disputes and for speaking up in class, but he would only share some of his opinions in private. For example, he confided in some students that he disagreed with the Soviet legal doctrine that a confession proved guilt, noting that confessions could have been coerced. During his studies, an anti-semitic campaign spread through the Soviet Union, culminating in the Doctors' plot; Gorbachev publicly defended a Jewish student who was accused of disloyalty to the country by one of their fellows.