The Gorbachev 'Thing'

 If you watched German public news last night....it went on, and on, and on....with the reported death of Gorbachev.  

Is there a great fascination with Gorbachev with the Germans?  

Look, from 1947 to late 1980s....the Cold War consumed the lives of West Germans.  Every month, you had some reminder of the Cold War conflict existing and the threat of annihilation existed (with nuke warfare).

So in 1985, there was a speech or two by Gorbachev, to indicate some change coming.  By 1988, the change was unfolding and West Germans saw Gorbachev as this dynamic figure to remake the USSR, and remove the threat.

Public TV news in that period went into overload, and everyone got a dose Gorbachev 'fever'.  

The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt?  Well....it hit Germans hard, and they couldn't understand why anyone would want to take down a great leader like this guy.

As the smoke cleared, the coup failed, but Gorbachev was gone, with Yeltsin in charge.  

So there are these Germans...mostly over the age of forty, and they have this belief of their safety and security improved....because of Gorbachev.  

The insider view?  If you were a Soviet citizen throughout the 1950s to 1980s....the economy was crap.  You had a grocery store that was always half-way empty, and you never felt satisficed.  The system had to change, and the guy who opened this door to dismantle the old system was Gorbachev.  

If you go view Russian grocery stores today?  The bulk of them look like your typical American or German grocery.  Life has improved.  Yeah, Putin might claim the vast amount of credit for that, but Gorbachev started the change.  

Life is different today in Germany.....mostly because the Soviet system was dismantled, and you can owe some of that credit to Gorbachev.