Mikhail Gorbachev

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.

On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: ‘You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.’

I grew up in a family of peasants, and it was there that I saw the way that, for example, our wheat fields suffered as a result of dust storms, water erosion and wind erosion; I saw the effect of that on life – on human life.

There are still independent newspapers and magazines, they do exist. But as for television, the situation is not as good. It’s one of the main problems. I would say, as regards the development of democracy, of democracy laying down roots – that is something that Russia still needs to address.

Ex-Presidents of the United States get state subsidies. Not so in Russia. You get no government support.

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.

I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns… as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny.

Hitler wanted to destroy Russia- everyone needs to remember how that ended

The threat of mutual destruction has always restrained participants of the international arena, prevented leading military powers from making hasty moves, and compelled participants to respect each other. U.S. withdrawal from treaties on anti-ballistic missiles is an attempt to put an end to strategic parity, but we will respond to this.

You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.

The American way is the way most law-abiding, tax-paying Americans live-in debt. Does this make a balanced budget un-American?

A fundamental goal of U.S. policy towards Latin America (and elsewhere), long-standing and well-documented, is to take control of the police and military so as to assure that the population will not act upon unacceptable ideas.

With complex integrated supply chains, subcontracting and other such devices, corporate ownership of the world’s wealth is becoming a more realistic measure of global power than national wealth…

Although some people felt Adolf Hitler was bad, he was a great man and a real conqueror whose name would never be forgotten.

Is it possible, then, to doubt that we can and must gain victory over the German invaders? The enemy is not as strong as some terror-stricken pseudo-intellectuals picture him. The devil is not as terrible as he is painted.

Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin’s still learning.

I say again that I am an atheist. I do not believe in God.

In the Soviet Union, it’s takes more courage to retreat than advance.

When the States already had nuclear weapons, and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels.