About us

The International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation) was founded by the President of USSR Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev in December 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev was the President of the Foundation until his passing on August 30, 2022. Since December 2022, the Foundation is called The International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies named after Mikhail S. Gorbachev (The Gorbachev Foundation).

The Gorbachev Foundation is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization. The Foundation is cooperating on an ongoing basis with leading universities, foundations, international organizations, government bodies and non-governmental organizations in Russia and various other countries.

The Gorbachev Foundation is one of the first independent think tanks in modern Russia. Since its inception, the Foundation has been conducting research into the social, economic and political problems relevant to the current stage of Russian and world history. The Foundations is seeking to contribute to the promotion of democratic values and moral and humanist principles in the development of society.

The Foundation’s Motto is: Towards a New Civilization

Areas of activity

Research conducted by the Foundation since its inception has concerned areas such as global problems, socio-economic and socio-political problems in Russia and the world, the history of Perestroika, and Russia’s recent history.

The Foundation organized international and national conferences, seminars and expert workshops, followed by the publication of monographs and proceedings. Reports prepared by the Foundation evoked considerable public interest. Among them are Russia’s National Interests and Security Problems (1997), Russia’s Self-determination: Report on the findings of the research project Russia in the Emerging Global System (2000), Perestroika: Twenty Years After (2006), 1989 in Russian and World History (2009), and The Challenge of the Pandemic and New Thinking in the 21^st Century.

Over the years of the Foundation’s existence, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Foundation’s staff members have published dozens of books, brochures and articles in periodicals in Russia and abroad.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s visits in Russia and other countries were an important part of the Foundation’s activities. The President of the Foundation participated in international conferences, made presentations and gave talks, met with members of the public, youth and students, representatives of various social strata, prominent political and public figures, members of parliaments and representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations. The subjects he covered included problems of globalization and international security, including problems of nuclear disarmament; fighting poverty and backwardness; environmental challenges, including the problems of preserving the planet’s water resources; economic cooperation, the future of Russia, European processes, and others.

The first President of the USSR and the Foundation’s staff members delivered hundreds of lectures to all kinds of audiences. The Gorbachev Foundation has become an important element of the emerging civil society in Russia. Prominent scholars from Russia, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea and other countries participated in the Foundation’s research activities.

During the years of its existence, the Foundation gave particular attention to humanitarian assistance and charitable activities, continuing the tradition that was revived in Russia with major input from the Gorbachev family. Among its programs for persons in need of medical treatment and Russian health care institutions, the Foundation regards helping children as its main priority. The Gorbachev Foundation provided critically important support to the Research Institute of Childhood Hematology in purchasing equipment and medicines, training of physicians and medical professionals and in implementing best practices in the treatment of blood diseases. The Foundation provided funding for Russia’s first Bone Marrow Transplantation Center in Moscow for children suffering from leukemia, followed by the creation of similar centers in Russia’s regions.

Over the years, the Gorbachev Foundation mobilized tens of millions of rubles for humanitarian programs in Russia. Its fundraising partners at the time included The American Oncological Society, charitable organizations in the United States and Germany, and individual donors.*

From 2002 onwards, the Foundation’s main humanitarian priority was fundraising for the construction of the building of the Institute of Childhood Hematology and Transplantation Science named after Raisa M. Gorbachev in St. Petersburg.

In 2006, with support from the Gorbachev Foundation, the Gorbachev family, and member of the State Duma, President of the Charitable Reserve Fund Alexander Lebedev, the Raisa Gorbachev International Fund was established in London. The Fund participated in financing the construction of the Institute of Childhood Hematology and Transplantation Science named after Raisa M. Gorbachev, which opened on September 20, 2007.

The activities of the Foundation are currently focused on the study and promotion of the political legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev and the ideas of New Thinking, emphasizing their relevance for the present.

Completed Projects

One of the Foundation’s major priorities in the 1990s was the project titled The Global World of the 21^st Century: Challenges and Responses. For three years, under the overall guidance and with direct participation of Mikhail Gorbachev, a group of Russian and international scholars coordinated by the Gorbachev Foundation undertook the study of the process of globalization, including its philosophical, socio-cultural, environmental, political and economic aspects, as well as the problems of global security. The sub-project Russia in the Emerging Global System focused on the factors influencing the development of our country and its role and place in a future world order and in solving global problems. The project’s findings were reflected in the monograph Facets of Globalization, one of the first comprehensive studies of the problem.

The Russian-Canadian project University of Calgary – Gorbachev Foundation (UCGF) was established in 1993 to support the process of democratic reforms in the Russian society. In the ensuing period, the UCGF, with support from the Canadian Agency for International Development, implemented over 40 projects in Moscow and in Russia’s regions. All of them focused on the study of current public policy problems affecting Russian society, such as the economy, the social sphere, culture, education, the interaction of the state and civil society, and relations between the federal center and Russia’s regions. Research findings of the ten-year project were discussed at dozens of roundtable meetings, workshops and conferences and summarized in the monograph Public Policy in Russia.

The project A Documentary History of Perestroika made extensive use of the historical and archival records pertaining to the concept of Perestroika and its implementation, in particular of the notes taken by Mikhail Gorbachev’s associates during the meetings of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The books published as a result of the project include In the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee: Based on the Notes Taken by Anatoly Chernyaev, Vadim Medvedev and Georgy Shakhnazarov (1985-1991; Responding to the Challenge of the Time; Mikhail Gorbachev and the German Question; and The Union Could Have Been Preserved.

In 2008-2022, in cooperation with Ves Mir Publishers, the Foundation undertook the publication of the Collected Works of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, a thirty-volume edition covering the period from November 1961 to December 1991. It includes Mikhail Gorbachev’s articles, speeches, reports and interviews, records of his meetings and trips in the Soviet Union and abroad, and his conversations with Soviet and international state leaders, political and public figures.

The activities of Mikhail Gorbachev after stepping down from the presidency of the Soviet Union is represented in the project Mikhail Gorbachev After the Kremlin: Chronicle of Events and Socio-Political Activities.

The objective of Project Expertise was to analyze the evolution of the socio-economic and political situation in Russia and the world. Brainstorming sessions held as part of the project brought together leading Russian experts. Records of the discussions were posted on the Foundation’s website and published as brochures under the general title Expertise Roundtables.

The Gorbachev Readings project was dedicated to the study of Russia’s recent history, based on the Archive and Library of the Gorbachev Foundations, which contain unique witness testimonies of the period of Perestroika and substantial material reflecting the subsequent period. Participants debated the sources and evolution of Russia’s democratic transformations, Russia’s role in today’s world, and the emergence of its civil society. These debates assumed an educational mission, shaping public opinion on the historic importance of the democratic reforms initiated during Perestroika and helped to raise awareness of the research on the subject conducted in Russia and abroad. The Readings’ participants included scholars from Russia and other countries as well as public figures, political leaders and journalists. Records of the discussions were published under the title The Gorbachev Readings.

The project Raisa Maximovna’s Club, started by Raisa M. Gorbachev in 1997, supported various initiatives contributing to the empowerment of civil society in Russia, with particular emphasis active participation of women in this process. Raisa Maximovna’s Club held discussions and conferences of scholars and practitioners and initiated research projects and charitable activities. The Club was among the first to help bring to public attention many of the problems of modern Russia, such as homeless children, general and domestic violence, gender inequality and constraints on women’s participation in politics, the crisis of the education system, obstacles to charitable activities, problems in the development of socially-oriented journalism. The Club’s charitable work was aimed primarily at helping children not in the care of their parents. The Club’s various events brought together scholars, political and public figures, journalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The conferences organized by the Club became a source for numerous interviews and press articles as well as eight collections of papers and monographs.

Current Projects

At present, the Foundation’s work focuses on the Archive and Museum Project. The Gorbachev Foundation Archive contains texts, electronic records and audio-visual material pertaining to the activities of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and reflecting the most consequential events of Russia’s recent history. The collection’s main body of material is the papers given to the Archive by the Gorbachev family and Mikhail Gorbachev’s close associates as well as papers reflecting the work of the Gorbachev Foundation. The Archive contains more than 30 thousand items, including the personal papers of Mikhail Gorbachev, Anatoly Chernyaev, Vadim Zagladin, Georgy Shakhnazarov as well documents reflecting the work of the Gorbachev Foundation. The Archive also contains a unique collection of photographs, with over 20 thousand items.

The Library, with more than 20 thousand titles of books, brochures and articles in Russian and other languages, contains publications on Perestroika and the life and work of Mikhail Gorbachev and publications reflecting the themes of the Foundation’s studies. The Archive’s reading room is open to scholars studying the problems of Russia’s recent history and the political legacy of Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

As part of the implementation of the Archive and Museum Project, we are planning to complete the description, systematization and digitization of the contents of the Foundation’s Archive, preparing them for use by scholars and for educational and cultural purposes.

On the basis of the Archive’s documents, periodicals such as newspapers and magazines and memoir literature, we are compiling the Chronicle of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Activities (1985-2022) which will be posted on the Foundation’s website as an important research tool for the study of Mikhail Gorbachev’s work, the history of Perestroika and the end of the Cold War.

Also as part of the Archive and Museum Project, we are planning to add to the Archive diaries, notes and reminiscences of members of the staff of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and USSR President. Some of the papers will be directly commissioned by the Gorbachev Foundation.

The Gorbachev Foundation will continue cooperation with universities, museums and libraries, supplying them with books and brochures published by the Foundation as well as copies of archival documents and photographs.

The Foundation will continue its Publications Program. We are planning to publish and reprint books by Mikhail Gorbachev, books dedicated to his life and work and papers and memoirs of his associates. In cooperation with Moscow State Linguistic University, the Foundation will continue the program of translating and publishing on our website important articles by international authors on Mikhail Gorbachev and the history of Perestroika.

The Foundation intends to continue to hold public presentations of books devoted to the life and activities of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and studies on the history of Perestroika.

*At present, the Foundation does not receive any funding from foreign sources for the financing of its projects.