Australian Leaders Pay Tribute to Man Who Lifted ‘Great Shadow’ From Humanity

Former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev takes part in the celebration on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/dpa, Bernd von Jutrczenka)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has led tributes to the late former leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, saying he changed the world for the better and that one of the true giants on the 2oth Century was gone.

In an official media statement, Albanese said that Gorbachev was instrumental in transitioning the Soviet Union away from a closed communist society.

“Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of warmth, hope, resolve and enormous courage and in a world that was profoundly divided, he was driven be an instinct for co-operation and unity,” he said.

“As the leader of the Soviet Union, he brought openness to a closed society with his policy of Glasnost. With Perestroika, he began to restructure a political and economic system deeply resistant to any such attempts. He freed the nations of Eastern Europe from the prison of Soviet rule. With President Reagan he achieved breakthroughs in arms control, including for some nuclear weapons.”

“Ultimately he lifted a great shadow that lay across humanity,” Albanese said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers told a press conference in Canberra on Aug. 31 that the world would mourn the passing of Gorbachev who he said was a pivotal figure.

“When the world saw conflict and stalemate, he saw peace and possibility,” Chalmers said. “He was the epitome of courage and vision and he was a reminder that it takes more courage to end a war than to start one.”

Chalmers said that the Gorbachev gift was even more remarkable when viewed through the lens of the contemporary world.

“There is no history of the 20th Century that doesn’t have him playing a central role in it. So the world mourns his passing today,” he said.

Gorbachev’s Death Should Remind the World of Ukraine’s Fight

Meanwhile opposition leader Peter Dutton said that while people may mourn the loss of Gorbachev, for him it served as a reminder of the Ukraine conflict and that Russian leaders could be different.

“Whilst people will mourn the loss, understandably I think the focus at the moment is on the damage that the current Russian leader is doing,” Dutton said. “I think we should really remind ourselves every day that these attacks are still taking place on women and children, on shopping centres, residential buildings etc. And unfortunately, the lessons of the 80s have been lost on somebody like President Putin.”

The sentiment was also echoed by deputy prime minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles who said the passing of one of the architects of the end of the Cold War demonstrated how far away Russia had travelled from where it looked to be in the 1990’s.

“When you look at what’s happening in Russia today, when you look at the way in which Russia is completely flouting the global rules‑based order, which has been built in the aftermath of the Second World War. I think all of us would hope that there was a future for Russia which had a respect for democracy, a respect for human rights and a respect for the global rules‑based order as part of it,” Marles said.

While Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said Gorbachev inspired “greater freedom” in his people.

“I wish we had a Gorbachev moment in China,” he told Nine News on Aug. 31.

The Transition Towards Freedom and Democracy

Gorbachev spent decades moving through the ranks of the Soviet Communist Party, before becoming the country’s leader in 1985, when he was selected as the party’s general secretary.

However, it was his transformative policy of “glasnost,” or free speech, which led to a significant change in the communist state allowing previously unthinkable criticism of the party. This in turn, emboldened nationalists who began to press for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Eastern Europe.

“I began these reforms and my guiding stars were freedom and democracy, without bloodshed. So the people would cease to be a herd led by a shepherd. They would become citizens,” Gorbachev once remarked of his policies.

However, he did not foresee or want to cause the collapse of the Soviet Union, a regime that some historians say is accountable for tens of millions of deaths.

“The breakup of the union was the result of betrayal by the Soviet nomenklatura, by the bureaucracy, and also [former leader Boris] Yeltsin’s betrayal,” he told CNN in 2012. “He spoke about cooperating with me, working with me on a new union treaty, he signed the draft union treaty, initialled that treaty. But at the same time, he was working behind my back.”