Michail Sergejevič Gorbačov citáty strana 2

„Zaplatil jsem příliš vysokou cenu za perestrojky.“

„Svět je na pokraji nové studené války. Někteří dokonce tvrdí, že už začala.“

„Pokud lidé nemají rádi marxismus, měli by vinit Britské muzeum.“

„Přeměny si nepřeje ten, kdo se domnívá, že už má všechno, co potřebuje.“

“We desperately need to recognise that we are the guests, not the masters, of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism.”

Zdroj: Chromý, Z.: Abeceda moudrosti. Praha: Proxima 1992. S. 284.

Michail Sergejevič Gorbačov: Citáty anglicky

“I believe, as Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of life.”

As quoted in Planet Savers : 301 Extraordinary Environmentalists (2008) by Kevin Desmond, p. 248
1990s

“Have we not been able to cross the threshold of mistrust, though mistrust has not completely disappeared? Has not the political thinking in the world changed substantially? Does not most of the world community already regard weapons of mass destruction as unacceptable for achieving political objectives?”

As quoted in The Times [London] (18 May 1990)
1990s

“I began to feel the desire for something more; I wanted to do something to make things better.”

Nobel Address (1991)

“Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.”

On his ambitions as a youth, in an Academy of Achievement interview (28 October 2000) http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/gor0int-1 1990s

“My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.”

As quoted in The London Daily Telegraph (16 June 1992)
1990s

“For a new type of progress throughout the world to become a reality, everyone must change. Tolerance is the alpha and omega of a new world order.”

The Observer [London] (15 December 1991)
1990s

“The more I reflect on the current world developments, the more I become convinced that the world needs perestroika no less than the Soviet Union needs it.”

During a tour of the United States, as quoted in The New York Times (5 June 1990) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DD1F30F936A35755C0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all 1990s

“The Soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.”

Nobel Address (1991)

“With Yeltsin, the Soviet Union broke apart, the country was totally mismanaged, the constitution was not respected by the regions of Russia. The army, education and health systems collapsed. People in the West quietly applauded, dancing with and around Yeltsin. I conclude therefore that we should not pay too much attention to what the West is saying.”

Speech (July 1988)
1980s

“Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.”

As quoted in USA Today (5 April 2006)
1990s

“Our democracy is being born in pain. A political culture is emerging — one that presupposes debate and pluralism, but also legal order and, if democracy is to work, strong government authority based on one law for all. This process is gaining strength.”

ABC News (12 July 2006)
1990s

“I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes.”

Nobel Address (1991)

“Dangers await only those who do not react to life.”

On the death of Boris Yeltsin, in "Russia's former president Yeltsin dies: Kremlin" in Reuters (23 April 2007) http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2330837320070423?src=042307_1016_TOPSTORY_boris_yeltsin_dies 1990s

“Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.”

Speech in East Berlin (7 October 1989), in German: Gefahren warten nur auf jene, die nicht auf das Leben reagieren, but often cited as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben", hence the English translation: "He who comes too late is punished by life". (Frankfurter Allgemeine, 3 October 2004) http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/15-jahre-danach-wer-zu-spaet-kommt-den-bestraft-das-leben-1191290.html 1980s

“To me, it is self-evident that if Soviet perestroika succeeds, there will be a real chance of building a new world order. And if perestroika fails, the prospect of entering a new peaceful period in history will vanish, at least for the foreseeable future.
I believe that the movement that we have launched towards that goal has fairly good prospects of success. After all, mankind has already benefited greatly in recent years, and this has created a certain positive momentum.”

Speech to the 27th Party Congress, Moscow (25 February 1986)
1980s

“I was probably too liberal and democratic as regards Yeltsin. I should have sent him as ambassador to Great Britain or maybe a former British colony.”

Nobel Address (1991)

“We had 10 years after the Cold War to build a new world order and yet we squandered them. The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently. Every US president has to have a war.”

As quoted in an interview with The Guardian (17 August 2011) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/17/mikhail-gorbachev-on-boris-yeltsin 2000s

“The Chernobyl disaster, more than anything else, opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue. It made absolutely clear how important it was to continue the policy of glasnost, and I must say that I started to think about time in terms of pre-Chernobyl and post-Chernobyl.”

As quoted in an interview with The London Daily Telegraph (7 May 2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1933223/Gorbachev-US-could-start-new-Cold-War.html 2000s

“My ambition was to liquidate communism, the dictatorship over all the people. Supporting me and urging me on in this mission was my wife, who was of this opinion long before I was. I knew that I could only do this if I was the leading functionary. In this my wife urged me to climb to the top post. While I actually became acquainted with the West, my mind was made up forever. I decided that I must destroy the whole apparatus of the CPSU and the USSR. Also, I must do this in all of the other socialist countries. My ideal is the path of social democracy. Only this system shall benefit all the people. This quest I decided I must fulfil.”

"Turning point at Chernobyl" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2006/04/21/commentary/world-commentary/turning-point-at-chernobyl/#.XPoajKR7mUk, Japan Times (21 April 2006) 2000s

“Perestroika did not give the people prosperity, something they expected of me, as head of state, based on an ingrained, traditional feeling of dependence. But I did not promise that. I urged people to use this new-found freedom to create prosperity, personal and social prosperity, with their own hands and minds, according to the abilities of each.”

Purportedly from an interview in Ankara, Turkey where he was a guest at a seminar at the American University. (February 2000) http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv6n1/gorbach.htm However, the actual source is unverifiable and appears to have occurred with different interviewers https://books.google.ru/books?id=xjMVCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90. Misattributed

“I consider it vitally important to preserve the democratic achievements which have been attained in the last few years. We have paid with all our history and tragic experience for these democratic achievements, and they are not to be abandoned, whatever the circumstances, and whatever the pretexts. Otherwise, all our hopes for the best will be buried.”

1990s, Memoirs (1995)

“Destiny so ruled that when I found myself at the helm of this state it already was clear that something was wrong in this country. We had a lot of everything - land, oil and gas, other natural resources - and there was intellect and talent in abundance. However, we were living much worse than people in the industrialized countries were living and we were increasingly lagging behind them. The reason was obvious even then. This country was suffocating in the shackles of the bureaucratic command system. Doomed to cater to ideology, and suffer and carry the onerous burden of the arms race, it found itself at the breaking point.”

1990s, Resignation Address (1991)

“I firmly came out in favor of the independence of nations and sovereignty for the republics. At the same time, I support the preservation of the union state and the integrity of this country. The developments took a different course. The policy prevailed of dismembering this country and disuniting the state, which is something I cannot subscribe to.”

1990s, Resignation Address (1991)

“The reform of our enormous state indeed demanded decentralization and redistribution of powers between the centre and the regions. But the local elites tried to paint this need in the exaggerated colours of 'national survival.'”

1990s, Resignation Address (1991)

“I absolutely reject the accusation that the Soviet leadership intentionally held back the truth about Chernobyl. We simply did not know the whole truth yet.”

It worked!
1990s, Memoirs (1995)

“The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station was graphic evidence, not only of how obsolete our technology was, but also of the failure of the old system. At the same time, and such is the irony of history, it severely affected our reforms by literally knocking the country off its tracks.”

1990s, Memoirs (1995)

“As long as weapons of mass destruction exist, primarily nuclear weapons, the danger is colossal. All nations should declare... that nuclear weapons must be destroyed. This is to save ourselves and our planet.”

1990s, Memoirs (1995)

“Preservation, renewal, and reform of the Union was my main political and, if you will, moral task in my position as president of the USSR. I consider it my greatest sorrow and misfortune that I did not succeed in preserving the country as a single whole. All my efforts were focused on trying to preserve that unity. Incidentally, more and more statements are heard today, including some by participants in the Belovezh accord, that the "soft form of Union Gorbachev proposed" might have protected our nations and nationalities from painful experiences. But, as the saying goes, the train has already left the station.”

Quoted in https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-50265870/mikhail-gorbachev-tells-the-bbc-world-in-colossal-danger Mikhail Gorbachev tells the BBC: World in ‘colossal danger’, BBC World News,(4 November 2019)
2000s

“The dissolution of the Union radically changed the situation in Europe and the world, disrupted the geopolitical balance, and undermined the possibility of carrying further many positive processes that were under way in world politics by the end of 1991. I am convinced that the world today would be living more peacefully if the Soviet Union - of course in a renewed and reformed version - had continued to exist.”

1990s, On My Country and the World (1999)