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" 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

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" The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism. "

" 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. "

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" It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past. "

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

" Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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.' "

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

" Sometimes when you stand face to face with someone, you cannot see his face. "

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

" I believe, as Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I say again that I am an atheist. I do not believe in God. "

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

" I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal. "

Mikhail Gorbachev

May

I Am

" 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.' "

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

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

" 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. "

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

" If people don't like Marxism, they should blame the British Museum. "