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" I don't think Russia is setting this as a goal; I don't think this should be Russia's goal. I think even the United States doesn't need to be a superpower. China doesn't need to be a superpower. It's a different world. "

Mikhail Gorbachev

Need

China

Goal

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" If not me, who? And if not now, when? "

Mikhail Gorbachev

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Who

" I paid too heavy a price for perestroika. "

" It seems that the most important thing about Reagan was his anti-Communism and his reputation as a hawk who saw the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire.' "

" Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries. "

" The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization. "

" The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy. "

" I think God has some mechanism that he uses to punish those that make mistakes. "

" I couldn't wait to get to the most powerful position, because I thought then I would be able to fix problems that only the leader can fix. But when I got there, I realized we needed revolutionary change. "

" We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race. "

" I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century... This is a problem that cannot be postponed. "

" America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard. "

" What about Jesus Christ? I say that he was a precursor of idealists; a precursor of socialists. "

Mikhail Gorbachev

Say

Jesus Christ

" The world will not accept dictatorship or domination. "

" Sometimes it's difficult to accept, to recognise one's own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for that. "

Mikhail Gorbachev

Arrogance

Mistakes

" Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth. "

" My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could. "

" I think we need more young people; we need to elect young people to government. We need to give them a chance, in the media, in politics, in democracy. "

" Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government. "

" On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.' "

" More socialism means more democracy, openness and collectivism in everyday life. "

" I grew up in a family of peasants, and it was there that I saw the way that, for example, our wheat fields suffered as a result of dust storms, water erosion and wind erosion; I saw the effect of that on life - on human life. "

" Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor. "

" If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today. "

" Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present. "

" It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction. "

" Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life. "

" Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out. "

" There should be competition and exchanges between different countries, but there are certainly certain universal values, and that is freedom and democracy. "

" If current technological processes continue without change, the environment will change, and we, the human species, will either have to mutate or even die, to disappear, as many species have disappeared. "

" Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way. "

Mikhail Gorbachev

Only

Union