Autographs of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 and additionally as head of state from 1988. Ideologically, he initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.
Born in Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, into a peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage, Gorbachev grew up under the rule of Joseph Stalin. In his youth, Gorbachev operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State University, he married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in 1953 and received his law degree in 1955. Moving to Stavropol, he worked for the Komsomol youth organization and, after Stalin's death, became a keen proponent of the de-Stalinization reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Gorbachev was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, overseeing the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal. In 1978, Gorbachev returned to Moscow to become a secretary of the party's Central Committee. He joined the governing Politburo (25th term) as a non-voting member the following year and as a voting member in 1980. Three years after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev—following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko—in 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary.
Although committed to preserving the Soviet state and its Marxist–Leninist principles, Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary for its survival. He withdrew troops from the Soviet–Afghan War, and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Domestically, Gorbachev's policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and the press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency. Ultimately, his democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. When various Warsaw Pact countries abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989, he declined to intervene militarily. Growing nationalist sentiment within constituent republics threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading hardliners within the party to launch an unsuccessful coup against him in August 1991. In the coup's wake, the Soviet Union dissolved against Gorbachev's wishes. After resigning from the presidency, he launched the Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement.
More about Mikhail Gorbachev Wikipedia
Affiliate disclosure: When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Current items with a signature of Mikhail Gorbachev
These are the most current items with a signature of Mikhail Gorbachev that were listed on eBay and on other online stores - click here for more items.
Traded items with a signature of Mikhail Gorbachev
The most expensive item with a signature of Mikhail Gorbachev (Perestroika #33/250 Signed by Mikhail Gorbachev 1994 VG+) was sold in September 2025 for £2,339.33 while the cheapest item (Mikhail Gorbachev Hand Signed Photo Original Autograph Soviet Union President) found a new owner for £6.50 in October 2019. The month with the most items sold (11) was September 2022 with an average selling price of £74.00 for an autographed item of Mikhail Gorbachev. Sold items reached their highest average selling price in January 2021 with £1,644.32 and the month that saw the lowest prices with £8.00 was October 2019. In average, an autographed item from Mikhail Gorbachev is worth £112.00.
Most recently, these items with a signature of Mikhail Gorbachev were sold on eBay - click here for more items.
