Gorbachev was a firm believer in the Soviet ideal
Gorbachev participated actively in the Komsomol Soviet youth organization while he was a student, soon ascending to the position of group leader in his area. Gorbachev and his father, Sergey, regularly put in 20 hours per day in the fields during the summer thanks to their extraordinary work ethic. They harvested almost 80 tonnes of grain in 1948 as a result, earning Sergey the Order of Lenin and his son the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for their accomplishment. In 1950, Gorbachev formally joined the Communist Party.
Gorbachev was dedicated to maintaining the Soviet Union and its socialist goals, but he also saw the need for considerable reform, notably in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. He left the Soviet-Afghan War and began holding summits with Ronald Reagan to reduce nuclear weapons and put an end to the Cold War. Domestically, his perestroika ("restructuring") initiative tried to decentralize economic decision-making in order to increase efficiency, while his glasnost ("openness") policy allowed for increased press and speech freedom. The one-party regime was damaged by his democratic reforms and the creation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies.
When some Eastern Bloc nations renounced Marxist-Leninist rule in 1989–1990, Gorbachev chose not to intervene militarily. The Soviet Union was under internal threat from rising nationalist sentiment, which prompted Marxist-Leninist hardliners to attempt the attempted August Coup against Gorbachev in 1991. As a result, Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union disintegrated against his desires. After leaving office, he launched his Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement.
