How did Russia go from Gorbachev to Putin's totalitarianism?

"If Russia remains the totalitarian place it has become under Vladimir Putin, then Gorbachev may be blamed for helping to bring on that terrible outcome."

Mikhail Gorbachev was 'hard to understand' and has a complicated legacy in Putin's Russia says William Taubman.
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[AlTarif]

Putin takes the blame for Putin not Gorbachev.

[brendanbehan]

Gorby was a good man not like the nutcase that is in power now.

[DarylSaunders]

Gorbachev was taking Russia in the right direction but was outdone by the oligarch culture.

[krakhedd]

I hope he was able to find and embrace the peace that it was not his fault.

Rest well, Gorby

[torbenalstrup]

You can´t blame a man for what happens 30 years after his period. The Sovjet Union collapse was not Gorby´s fault, he just did´nt get enough time to turn this giant tanker around before it went out of fuel so to speak. If he had had a couple of years more to do the exercise I am pretty sure that Russia would have looked significantly different today. There were a few of his views that I really did not understand, you probably have to be Russian to understand it, but in general he was one of the great state men of all times IMHO. RIP Gorby

[emmerentiagroenewald]

Thank you, mr William Taubman!! A great explanation, without becoming all emotional!!✌✌🌹❤

[christinalynn]

Gorbachev, seems there was a sense of sadness/sorrow in his eyes in some pictures. Hopefully he is now fully at ease and resting in peace. Upsetting times for Russia, the people society and, Ukraine, the Ukrainian people and the world. It must have been disappointing for him, if he had any the better sense.

[oldgreybeard]

Was he too decent and intelligent a man to be well thought of in Russia? The majority of Russians like hard men who they see as strong leaders. Hopefully the young have a different attitude but I will not hold my breath.

[WorldOfKnowledgeTH]

The problems we have today have nothing to do with Gorbachev and I don't think it is right to tie him to putin. If it was yeltsin then yes in agreement. But Gorbachev helped end the cold War, stopped the war in Afghanistan, stopped killing people within the ussr, promoted freedom of speech and many other things like that, he hoped for a free and democratic russia. He wanted greatness and riches not just for Russians but for all people's of the soviet republics. Gorbachev is probably the only Russian leader that Lenin would have approved of. These 2 men hoped for the best for their people. One succeeded but died soon after and the other hoped but was unsuccessful as he stepped down to yeltsin, a much weaker man. Now putin, the weakling sitting in the kremln barking out orders to destroy the country Gorbachev loved. If it was Gorbachev himself we would be with his people not just giving orders. Really shows the huge differences between the two. Ones a man the other is a fascist. May Mr Gorbachev RIP knowing he is the only Russian leader in the past century to truly gain respect from the west. And he earned it. The only Russian leader in the past 100 yeas to actually do the right thing for the people and not for himself.

[stevemcgowen]

I spent some time visiting Russia- a few summers in SPB and winter in Moscow and 2 semesters of university- at SPB State and MGU. This was the early- mid 2000's. At the time I would have never guessed Russia would become Mordor within 15 years. Westernization was happening, Russians I knew wanted to be like the progressive West, not Russia's past. Putin is solely to blame for what has become of Russia.. He completely turned everything around- in a way similar to how the far right in America has gained power under their cult of personality- Trump. The 2 movements are very similar in that they have united a large % of the population under the guise of ultranationalism, religion, and anti wokenes. Putler saw that Ukraine was embracing the EU and EU values of freedom and democracy, and couldn't stand to have Ukraine even think of being in the EU. He saw how former communist states- like the Czech Republic, have such higher standards of living, quality of life, modernity and freedom, than Russia, that he couldn't live with the possibility of Ukraine following in the footsteps of countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania...

[ulusguy]

He jumped off the path and tried to set it in a new direction. The 'West' isn't perfect, democracy isn't perfect, but at least he showed that continuing in the direction of the Russian, Soviet way was worse. It's not his fault that Putin's ego, a consolidated wreck of the worst of human endeavour took over and has led Russia back a century.

[EECO]

It's such a shame. Gorbachev gave Russia a chance to be a normal nation, prosperous and healthy, but they threw it all away. It'll be generations now before Russian can rejoin the modern world.

[theyrealltaken]

"Failure" is entirely too harsh a word to describe Gorbachev.

[keithmorgan]

There's a strong pull towards reverting to type.

[rejvaik]

Bizarrely the legacy of Gorbachev will be one where he's hated in his own country but loved everywhere else especially in the West and in the NATO countries

Funny how fate works that way

[mikejose]

Blame on Yeltsin, but Gorbachev was a weak leader

[MC-nyiw]

Both Gorbachev and Navalny supported crimea annexation by Russia, let that sink in.

[abrahamlevi]

The French philosopher, Joseph de maistre was once quoted as saying that every nation gets the government that it deserves.

[timmulrenan]

These comments move directly from Gorbachev to Putin without a mention of Yeltsin. Yeltsin was the transitional figure, competitor to Gorbachev, who appointed Putin. The wrong turn began with Yeltsin.

[luishernandezblonde]

It seems like our lack of knowledge about the system of Russia is to blame for this transformation to this. Russia is not in a recent totalitarian mode now - but it is totalitarian for centuries. Since the Mongol era, when the Mongol Khans first brought the idea of Chinese totalitarianism to Russia, Russia has been run by despots with authoritarian tendency, running secret police and military force to suppress domestic unrest and invading sovereign nations beyond the border. But we assumed Russia would become a democracy very quickly and we tried to bring this, without addressing this totalitarian trait.

If we want to help building a future democratic Russia, we must destroy the seed that breed totalitarian nature in the country. The same thing in China as well, considering China has a tremendous influence in how Russia has become.