MOSCOW, Oct 1, Reuter: Mikhail Gorbachev, elected President of the Soviet Union on October 1, Bbegan his working life as a machine operator at a tractor station in his native Stavropal region.
The year was 1946 and he was 15 years old.
In 1952 he joined the Communist Party and three years later became actively involved in party work and activities within the Konsomol (Communist Youth League) after graduating from Moscow State University’s Law Department.
In September 1966, after four years as party organizer for Stavropal region’s state and collective farms, Gorbachev was appointed first secretary of Stavropal City, rising to regional party chief in 1970.
He joined the party’s policy making central committee in 1971 and was summoned to Moscow in 1978 to become central committee secretary for agriculture, a year later he joined the ruling politburo as a candidate (nonvoting) member.
Gorbachev became a full member of the politburo in October 1980. After the death of Kremlin leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, he was put in charge of the Soviet economy by his successor, Yuri Andropoy, who groomed his protégé for eventual leadership.
Under Andropov, Gorbachev took a major role in internal party affairs and gained much needed foreign experience by visiting Canada and Portugal in May and December 1983.
Andropov’s death after a long illness in February 1984, came too early for Gorbachev to consolidate his position and the post of party general secretary went to Konstantin Chernenko.
During Cherenkov’s year in office, Gorbachev secured the support of younger members of the Soviet leadership and was able to forestall an attempt by politburo conservatives to appoint former Brezhnev aide Victor Grishin as the next leader.
Appointed general secretary in March 1985 at the age of 54, Gorbachev became the youngest Soviet Leader since Josef Stalin.
On gaining the leadership, Gorbachev embarked on a radical program of political, economic and social reform designed to prepare the Soviet Union for the 21st century.
His plans for the reorganization of the government and apparatus, paving the way for his accession to, the post of President with widely expanded powers, were endorsed in June 1988 by a Communist Party conference.
On October 1, 1988, Gorbachey was elected President by a unanimous vote of the Soviet Parliament, the Supreme Soviet.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 7, 1988
