Description:

Gorbachev Mikhail 1931 - Mikhail Gorbachev DS speech delivered at Israeli university



Six typed pages of speech delivered in English by Mikhail Gorbachev at Bar Ilan University in Raman Gut, Israel on June 16, 1992. Signed "M. Gorbachev" in blue pen at top of first page and dated "16 v. 92." The speech is addressed to "Dear Rector, Mr. Zvi Arad, Dear members of the Council of Trustees, Ladies and Gentlemen". In very fine condition with expected fold marks and stapled in upper left hand corner, measuring 8.625" x 11.125". Smells faintly of cigarette smoke.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-) became associated with the Communist Party at age fourteen, when he joined the Komsomol, or Communist League of Youth. While a student at Moscow State University in the early 1950s, Gorbachev became a full member of the Communist Party. He excelled professionally, and was the youngest member elected to the Politburo, or executive committee of the Communist Party, by 1980. In March 1985, Gorbachev became General Secretary, implementing many dynamic new reforms like perestroika and glasnost, changes in policy that aligned the Soviet Union more with the West. Gorbachev also thawed relations with historic Cold War enemy the United States by meeting with President Ronald Reagan. This speech presents the dynamic leader as an ex-party philosopher and a friend of Soviet Jews. During his tenure, Gorbachev relaxed the Soviet Union's attitude towards Jewish immigration in 1989.

Gorbachev visited Israel for five days in mid-June 1992, during which time he was presented with an honorary doctorate degree at Ban Ilan University and a $35,000 cash award for the Harvey Peace Prize issued from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Our speech was presented to attendees of his degree ceremony at Ban Ilan University.

Gorbachev writes from a perspective granted by the recent collapse of the Soviet Union. "Among its other flaws, Marxism, which held us captive for so long, took a simplistic approach, treating religious faith as a self-delusion, as a mirage", Gorbachev reasons. He continues, "This mistake was further aggravated when several generations of Soviet people were brainwashed in the spirit of atheism ... However, as soon as society was freed from the ideological shackles, thought had to be given to the role religion should play in social progress ... The religious renaissance in Russia, in other newly-independent states, and Israel too, is in many respects linked to the fact that religion acts as a factor for national and state consolidation ... We are going through a turning point in history. Not only my country but the whole world as well has found itself at the crossroads. The road to a new civilization will be a long and arduous one. It would be hardly possible to comprehend it and to chart it without faith, without a religious foundation."

Gorbachev was warmly received during his trip to Israel, which culminated in a symbolic tree planting in Jerusalem Forest.

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