There are people who hail him as a saviour of humanity and there are those who hate him for destroying the former Soviet Union. But nobody can deny that Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who passed away yesterday, was a man of courage and conviction in his beliefs. One may agree or disagree with his line of thinking but it is a fact that he was a man of great resolve and his exploits changed the course of human history for all time.
In 2017, according to a survey carried out by the independent institute called Levada Center, 46% of Russian citizens were found to have a negative opinion about Gorbachev, 30% were indifferent towards his achievements, while only 15% had a positive opinion. But in the Western countries, he is seen as the greatest statesman of the 20th century. His visits to the USA saw large crowds turning out to greet him. Gorbachev’s negotiations with the USA helped to bring about an end to the Cold War and reduced the threat of nuclear holocaust. His decision to dismantle the Soviet Union’s hegemony was more peaceful than the end of the British Empire.
But not many people are aware of his hobbies and his interests away from the maneuverings of international politics. Two things he was passionate about were classical music and the game of chess. He loved to listen to Western classical music and could identify the works of the great European composers such as Chopin, Hayden, Bach, Beethoven and others by listening to the tunes. He was a fairly good singer too. Once in front of a BBC media team he sang a Russian song very well. “Raisa used to love my singing,” he told them. Raisa was his beloved wife who passed away in 1999.
In sport, chess was his favourite game. His love for chess began when he was a schoolboy. He came from a poor family and could not afford to buy a chess set. So he and his friends used to carve out chess figures from pieces of wood and play chess games by using those pieces. When Gorbachev was a child, the entire country was in the grip of the unrelenting famine of 1930-1933 in which two of Gorbachev’s paternal uncles and an aunt died. This was followed by the Great Purge ordered by Josef Stalin in which persons accused of being enemies of the State were arrested and executed. Both of Gorbachev’s grandfathers were arrested and spent time in labor camps before being released.
Perhaps these memories of a harsh childhood fashioned his thoughts and influenced his mind to seek peace for all humans. He also decided to use his passion for chess to promote peace in the world. By then he was a good player himself and was on very friendly terms with the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. In 2005 Gorbachev, the FIDE president and former world champion Anatoly Karpov (who had won the world crown seven times) got together and started the ‘Chess For Peace’ initiative. It was an event that saw top players from all over the world competing over the internet in a long lasting tournament.
The highlight of the event was a battle between Karpov and the five-time women’s world champion Susan Polgar whose sister Judit is also a legendary player. Gorbachev was the Chief Guest and he took part in a widely publicised parade before a cheering crowd. Then the battle commenced between the two great players, one man and one woman. Before it began, Gorbachev himself served tea to the two combatants and then played the first move on behalf of Karpov. Knowing chess very well himself, Gorbachev deliberately made it a weak move. “I want to make things difficult for the more experienced player,” he explained with a smile. Eventually the contest ended in a 3-3 tie.
When asked by a reporter what he hoped to achieve through chess, Gorbachev replied : “This door will not open only with chess. The pursuit of peace may involve one hundred or one thousand more initiatives. Now we have seen just one example – this idea of Anatoly Karpov to seek peace and cooperation through chess. We must have more.” There is no doubt that Gorbachev’s peace initiatives in different fields have had some effect. But the world needs more such initiatives and more peace loving statesmen like Mikhail Gorbachev to see the human race through these difficult times.
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