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Israeli leaders mourn passing of Gorbachev, recall plight of Soviet Jews

“If we look at the 20th century not through the lens of political struggles, but rather from the bird’s-eye perspective of history, we see how utterly unique Gorbachev was,” said Sharansky.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and for many the man who restored democracy to then-communist-ruled European nations, was mourned Wednesday as the loss of a rare leader who changed the world and for a time gave hope for peace among the superpowers.

But the man who died at age 91 on Tuesday was also reviled by many countrymen who blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union and its diminution as a superpower. The Russian nation that emerged from its Soviet past shrank in size as 15 new nations were created.

Gorbachev led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. His passing is also mourned by Jews and Israelis who recall the plight of Soviet Jewry.

“He was a brave leader and great statesman, who contributed greatly to the rehabilitation of relations between his country and Israel and opened the gates of the Soviet Union for the great wave of Jewish immigration to Israel in the 1990s,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Gorbachev “one of the 20th century’s most extraordinary figures. He was a brave and visionary leader, who shaped our world in ways previously thought unimaginable.”

“After decades of brutal political repression,” Gorbachev “embraced democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation” President Joe Biden said.

He added that “these were the acts of a rare leader – one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”

Sharansky: Gorbachev’s complicated role

In early 1986, famous refusenik and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky was the first political prisoner to be released by Gorbachev. In an obituary for the Washington Post published Tuesday, Sharansky wrote that Gorbachev “was a true believer in the ideas of Marx and Lenin, and the original intention behind his pioneering reforms was to rebrand communism with a more human face.

“Moreover, the moment it became clear that the people’s desire for greater freedom could ultimately topple the regime, he did his best to restrain the forces he had unleashed,” Sharansky said.

“During his first trips to the West, before he became leader of the Politburo, Gorbachev discovered that the Soviet Union had paid a heavy diplomatic and economic price for its treatment of dissidents. As a result, within the first year of ascending to power, he began to release political prisoners and long-time refuseniks. When it soon became clear, however, that such a policy could lead to mass emigration, new restrictions were introduced.”

According to Sharansky, “It was only after 250,000 demonstrators convened in Washington in 1987 to support Soviet Jews, greeting Gorbachev during his first visit as Russia’s leader with chants of ‘Let Our People Go!’ that the Iron Curtain began to come down.”

Nevertheless, the former refusenik expressed gratitude, saying that “if we look at the 20th century not through the lens of political struggles, but rather from the bird’s-eye perspective of history, we see how utterly unique Gorbachev was.

“In nearly every dictatorship there are dissidents, and from time to time there are also Western leaders willing to risk their political fates to promote human rights abroad. But Gorbachev was a product of the Soviet regime, a member of its ruling elite who believed its ideology and enjoyed its privileges — yet decided to destroy it nevertheless.”

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War.