Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he bids the last farewell to his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during the funeral ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 23 September 1999 (reissued 30 August 2022). According to a Moscow Central Clinical Hospital statement, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. As a supporter of the de-Stalinization programs of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the United States and withdrew the Soviet Union from the Soviet-Afghan war. His policies created freedom of speech and press, and decentralized fiscal policy planning and execution to increase efficiency. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, overseeing Russia’s transition from one party rule to fragile democracy. (Photo by Sergey Chirikov/EPA/EFE)

A cat sits in front of a retro car owned by retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets at an open-air museum of Soviet-era vehicles in the village of Chernousovo, Tula region, Russia on September 27, 2018. In the remote village of Chernousovo, retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets tends to more than 300 ramshackle, Soviet-era cars, remnants of a once vibrant auto industry that crumbled with the fall of the Soviet Union. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Two demonstrators hurl stones at Soviet tanks on Leipziger Platz in East Berlin, Germany on June 17, 1953. Germany's parliament on Friday, June 16, 2023, commemorated the 70th anniversary of a popular uprising in the communist east that was brutally crushed by the Soviet-backed dictatorship.(Photo by AP Photo, File)

An Afghan boy jumps off the turret of a Soviet tank on a hilltop on the the outskirts of Kabul, Sunday, March, 4, 2018. (Photo by Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev attends the Gorby 80 Gala at the Royal Albert Hall on March 30, 2011 in London, England. The concert is to celebrate the 80th birthday of the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Afghan children play on the remains of a Soviet-era armored personnel carrier on the outskirts of Jalalabad on February 15, 2016. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of fighting against Mujahidin militiamen. (Photo by Noorullah Shirzada/AFP Photo)

Russian policewomen dressed in Soviet Army styled uniforms take part in the Victory Day parade in Volgograd on May 9, 2018. Russia marks the 73 rd anniversary of the Soviet Union' s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Museum assistant and former Soviet soldier, Sheikh Abdullah looks at a display in the Manzar-e Jahad, or Jihad Museum, which depicts the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the Afghan resistance, in Herat, on February 15, 2014. Sheikh Abdullah, who was a Soviet intelligence officer by the name of Khakimov Bakhrodin, was captured after being injured in battle with the Mujahideen. Abdullah stayed with his captors, converted to Islam and was renamed Abdullah. He never returned to his former homeland and now works at the Jihad Museum. (Photo by Aref Karimi/AFP Photo via The Atlantic)