Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : He came to see that Communism could no longer be the ruling force in Soviet life.
56% : On one hand, the habits ingrained by 70 years of cradle-to-grave subsistence under Communism; on the other, the imperatives of moving quickly to change the old ways and to demonstrate that whatever dislocation resulted was temporary and worth the effort.
47% : He warned against the eastward expansion of the European Union, worried publicly about the possibility of a new Cold War, and welcomed the Russian parliamentary vote to annex Crimea.
44% : Mr. Gorbachev resorted to stronger tactics, denying Lithuania critical supplies of oil, natural gas and coal, and imposing an embargo on medicines and baby food.
41% : He increased American military spending, deepening his own country's deficit, in the hope that any effort by the Soviet Union to keep pace would finally force it into bankruptcy and undermine the Communist system.

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