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Abstract. The memoirs of Yuri Antonovich Borko, an outstanding Russian Europeanist, founder, and honorary president of the Association for European Studies in Russia (AEVIS), are dedicated to Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev and his time. The author recalls the impressions and entourage of the young reformer and his first steps as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Noting the complex attitude of modern Russian society towards M.S. Gorbachev, the author pays tribute, regarding him as an outstanding political figure. Yuri Antonovich Borko recalls that scientists and researchers were grateful to M.S. Gorbachev for the freedom of speech. There was no longer the need to express your thoughts in such a way so that discerning reader would understand the implications, but the censor would not. Thanks to the activities of Mikhail Gorbachev, the international relations of Soviet scientists and researchers improved. According to the memoirs of Yu.A. Borko, there were systematic scientific cooperation between Soviet researchers and Western colleagues during this period. A significant place in the memoirs is devoted to the history of the election campaign to the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union, in which Yu.A. Borko and some of his friends and colleagues were elected and became people’s deputies.
Keywords: Yuri Borko, USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika, glasnost, new political thinking, freedom, democratization.
For citation: Borko Yu.A. Mikhail Gorbachev: Memories, in Novoe Proshloe / The New Past. 2021. No. 4. Pp. 300–316. DOI 10.18522/2500‑3224‑2021‑4-300-316.
The article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).