He was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union

Gorbachev openly backed the reforms of nations in the Soviet Eastern European bloc while also implementing a bold new program of political, electoral, and diplomatic reform. Between 1989 and 1990, democratic elections took place in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and Gorbachev committed to a gradual withdrawal of Soviet forces from each nation.

The "Iron Curtain," which had separated the world during the Cold War, had been torn down by the time Gorbachev consented to the reunification of East and West Germany in the summer of 1990. When discussing the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev has the most sway. When he gave the order for Soviet soldiers to seize Lithuania on January 11, 1991, he sent it on a downward trajectory toward oblivion. His misguided foreign and economic policies ultimately condemned the nation to annihilation.