Mikhail S Gorbachev

Ten years ago today, on Aug. 19, 1991, Russians awoke to the rumble of tanks moving through the streets of Moscow. It would turn out to be a kind of historical drumroll, opening the final chapter in the story of the 20th century's longest and bloodiest totalitarian regime. Hard-line military and security officials ordered the tanks into Moscow as the opening act in a halfhearted coup attempt.

It's been nearly 10 years since Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the first and last "president" of the Soviet Union, was driven from power by the very forces of democracy he unleashed. These days, he's president of the Moscow-based Gorbachev Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting disarmament and environmental causes. In the space above his desk, once reserved for the portrait of Soviet founder Vladimir I.

Ten prominent figures, including former President Carter and ex-Russian President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, have written an open letter to President Bush urging him to develop a plan to cut greenhouse gas production, Time magazine said. The letter, in issues to appear today, was published less than a week after the Bush administration signaled it had effectively abandoned the 1997 Kyoto, Japan, treaty aimed at cutting greenhouse gases that many scientists believe are behind global warming.

Russian and foreign dignitaries paid tribute Friday to former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, marking his 70th birthday with flair in a country where most people dismiss the legacy of his reforms. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and even his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin--Gorbachev's bitter rival even after the 1991 collapse of communism--led the congratulations for the architect of perestroika, whose reforms opened up Soviet society.

Mikhail Gorbachev brokered nuclear arms agreements, brought democratic reform to the Soviet Union and oversaw the end of the Cold War. He's a world stage kind of guy. On Thursday, he shared a stage in Anaheim with William Shatner. On Friday, he spoke to an Orange County German club. Next Sunday, the man who invented perestroika will take to the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral, followed by country singer Naomi Judd. And he's getting paid well--extremely well.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev brokered nuclear arms agreements, brought democratic reform to the Soviet Union and helped oversee the end of the Cold War. He's a world-stage kind of guy. On Thursday, the former Soviet president shared a stage in Anaheim with William Shatner. On Friday, he spoke to an Orange County German club. A week from Sunday, the man who invented perestroika will take to the pulpit at Crystal Cathedral, followed by country singer Naomi Judd. And he's getting paid well--extremely well.

A week after denouncing the Kremlin for using strong-arm tactics to curb Russia's independent media, former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said President Vladimir V. Putin gave his personal pledge Tuesday that freedom of speech will be protected. "The president clearly stood by his position--and these were not mere words or games--that he is committed to the principle of a free press," Gorbachev told reporters after meeting with Putin.

Ten years after their artful diplomacy toppled the Berlin Wall, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, George Bush and Helmut Kohl gathered among the ghostly traces of the hated Cold War symbol Monday to take their bows and reflect on the hopes and fears of Nov. 9, 1989, when the world as they knew it changed overnight.

Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has moved from Perestroika to pizza in his new role as pitchman for the Edge, Pizza Hut's newest entry in the fast-food wars. In a television commercial to be televised during the broadcast of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, the former president escorts his 10-year-old granddaughter, Anastasia, into a Moscow Pizza Hut, igniting a brief argument among diners over Gorbachev's place in history.

Ten years ago this week, the Reykjavik summit on nuclear disarmament between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev looked like a miserable failure: After hammering out tentative agreements on missile cutbacks, Gorbachev suddenly demanded that the United States stop work on the anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan refused. And both sides went home from Iceland grumbling.