From perestroika to Putin, the life of Mikhail Gorbachev in pictures
The death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final president of the Soviet Union, has sparked renewed reflection about a key period in contemporary world history.
Presiding over the waning USSR, Gorbachev was seen as a peacemaker by the West for his role in ending the Cold War — for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
The reforms he initiated, intended to modernise the country and bring it closer to the rest of Europe, ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of 15 sovereign states.
Coupled with the wave of democratisation and independence of former socialist and communist countries in Europe, Gorbachev played a significant role in what turned out to be a tectonic shift for the continent and the world.
We look back at some of the most important moments in the life of the eighth and last leader of the USSR.
With Gorbachev's rise to the top of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, the world witnessed a change in the way power was portrayed in the world's largest country and biggest nuclear power.
The appearance of his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, at many work meetings and official trips gave a rare insight into the life of a Soviet leader -- who, unlike his predecessors, was open and vocal about the fact that she was the main pillar in his life and an everyday confidante.
Raisa Gorbacheva was not just the "First Lady of Glasnost," however: she actively promoted the participation of women in politics and was known for her charity work, including raising funds for cancer treatment in children.
Gorbachev was said to have been deeply struck by Raisa's death in 1999 when she succumbed to leukaemia at the age of 67.
Inheriting a state in dire need of economic reforms, Gorbachev sought to preserve the
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