The International Non-Governmental Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (Gorbachev Foundation) presents the Exhibit Center Mikhail Gorbachev: Life and Reforms.
 
    The Perestroika era is a turning point in the history of Russia and the entire world. Landmark events of the 20th Ñentury are associated with Perestroika and Mikhail Gorbachev’s activities: dismantling of the totalitarian system and the start of democratization in the Soviet Union and Russia, the end of the Cold War, the unification of Germany, and democratic revolutions in the Central and Eastern European countries. Lots of books and articles have been written about Perestroika and Mikhail Gorbachev; myths have been created and sincere delusions have taken shape.
     The permanent exhibit Mikhail Gorbachev: Life and Reforms was officially opened in the Gorbachev Foundation on March 11, 2005, to commemorate the 20th anniversary since the start of Perestroika.
 
     The Exhibit’s objective is to show the unique nature of the Perestroika era and all its complexity and drama. Rare documentary materials from personal archives of Mikhail Gorbachev and his associates, as well as from the Gorbachev Foundation’s collections convey the spirit and the realities of the Perestroika period.
 
     More than 300 items are on display in two rooms with a total area of 150 square meters, including authentic documents, personal items, well-known and little-known photographs, awards, and gifts presented to Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Gorbachev, as well as printed publications, books and posters from the period of Perestroika. The exhibit’s materials use excerpts from Mikhail Gorbachev’s book Life and Reforms (English version – Memoirs), that was published in 1995 and has become a bibliographical rarity.

     The Exhibit’s big room deals with the domestic and foreign policies of the Perestroika era and with the profound changes that took place in the country and the world in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. The smaller room gives insights into the history and the life of the Gorbachev family, activities of Mikhail Gorbachev since he stepped down as President of the Soviet Union, and work of the Gorbachev Foundation.

     The display represents the life and public activities of the First Lady of the Soviet Union Raisa Gorbachev (1932-1999).

   Items on the display include Gorbachev’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate diploma, the Party membership card, the employment record, the President of the USSR and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU cards, the pens with which Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed the treaties between the Soviet Union and the United States, personal items belonging to Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Gorbachev, and many other objects.

     Mikhail Gorbachev: Life and Reforms Exhibit Center is the Gorbachev Foundation’s contribution to studies of contemporary Russia. Together with the Archive  and the Library, it forms the Foundation’s Public Affairs Center.

     Mikhail Gorbachev: Life and Reforms Exhibit Center invites everyone who are interested in the history of modern Russia, who are willing to independently contemplate on it, who want to know facts rather than myths and speculations about Perestroika and the figure of Mikhail Gorbachev.

     People who made this Exhibit see their primary goal in introducing the younger generation of Russians to the Perestroika era, its main architect and key actors and give them a chance to get a deeper understanding of the true history of their own country.

     The Gorbachev Foundation’s Vice President Irina Gorbachev-Virganskaya is the author of the concept of the Exhibit Center.

     Design Team: Aleksey Litvin and Armen Sargsian

    The Exhibit Center conducts tours and lectures for groups of school and college students, educators, researchers, and Russian and foreign tourists (prior booking required).

Contacts:

Telephone: +(7 495) 945-69-48 (Mrs. Yekaterina Davydova)
Fax: +(7 495) 945-83-31
e-mail: public@gorby.ru