Mikhail Gorbachev is hailed as one of the greatest world leaders of all time. From a young age Gorbachev has continued to change the world socially, economically, and politically. The events leading up to Gorbachev’s resignation as president of the USSR show his leadership skills. Mikhail Gorbachev started from the bottom of the food chain but, with determination and phenomenal leadership skills he become president of the Soviet Union and a well-known world leader and peace advocate..
Mikhail Gorbachev was born the son of Soviet peasants in Stavropol in 1931. When he was ten years old, during World War II, the armies of Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's father, a farmer on a state farm in Stavropol, was forced to fight in the war and young Gorbachev took over many of his father's duties while continuing to work hard at school. Even after the war, while still a student, Mikhail Gorbachev continued to drive a combine harvester in the fields.
When Gorbachev was eighteen, he received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor award from the Communist Party for his achievements during the harvest. His experience working the land would serve him later in life, and his ability to be both an exemplary worker and a successful student earned him admission to the Law School of Moscow University in 1950. He continued part-time studies at Stavropol Agricultural Institute and in 1967 he obtained a degree in agriculture to add to his first degree in law. In 1952 he became a member of the Communist Party and upon his graduation with a law degree in 1955, he began his career in the Communist Party organization in Stavropol.
Gorbachev had always been recognized for his formidable intelligence and quickly rose through the ranks to become head of the regional Communist Party in 1970. There he attracted the attention of top Soviet leaders in Moscow, most notably Yuri Andropov, at the time head of the country's secret police. When Gorbachev went to