Gorbachev He was born in the agricultural region of Stavropol, Gorbachev studied law at Moscow Univ. Returning to Stavropol, he moved gradually upward in the local Communist party. In 1970, he became Stavropol party leader and was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Regarded as a skilled technocrat and a reformer, Gorbachev joined (1978) the Communist party secretariat as agriculture secretary, and in 1980 he joined the politburo as the protege of Yuri Andropov. After Andropov's …showed first 75 words of 376 total…

…showed last 75 words of 376 total…elected Gorbachev executive president. An unsuccessful anti-Gorbachev coup by hardliners in Aug., 1991, shifted greater authority to the Russian Republic's president, Boris Yeltsin, and greatly accelerated change. Gorbachev dissolved the Communist party, granted the Baltic states independence, and proposed a looser, chiefly economic federation among the remaining republics. With the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Dec. 8, 1991, the federal government of the Soviet Union became superfluous, and on Dec. 25, Gorbachev resigned as president.