Bringing History to Mason: "Looking Back, Looking Forward"
By Broadside Correspondent John Kleeb. Photo by Randy Urick.
Mikhail Gorbachev was greeted to an enthusiastic applause and a standing ovation when Provost Peter Stearns introduced him Tuesday night to a sold-out crowd at the Center for the Arts. The event was organized by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. According to Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science Jack Censer, the conference came about from professors wanting to do something to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Gorbachev was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and he held this position from 1985 to 1992. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. In addition, he started two organizations, the Gorbachev Foundation which promotes democracy around the globe and Green Cross International, which is an environmental group. He is also a greatly respected statesman around the world.
Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences T. Mills Kelly said it was particularly exciting for him because Gorbachev is a man he teaches about in his Eastern European history classes. To Kelly, seeing him speak was an unique opportunity to see a topic of his lectures in person.
Both Kelly and Stearns agreed that the event was a success due to the high level of student participation in the event. Through handwritten notes, students had the opportunity to ask Gorbachev questions. As another indicator of the event’s success, Gorbachev was also able to show a personal side to history when answering students’ questions.
One such question had asked why it was he of all the Soviet Union leaders that decided to make relationships with the United States more open. Gorbachev explained humbly that it was not merely him that caused the desire for change in the Soviet Union, but rather the people there. He had told a story earlier in the speech about how on his first day as General Secretary, he shocked the other Warsaw Pact nations by telling them that they were free to make their own decisions for their countries. He went on to say that his support for allowing more openness was in large part a personal experience.
He related the stories of his two grandfathers—one grandfather who was a staunch Bolshevik and another who was an independent peasant. Both grandfathers, he said, suffered under Stalin and his maternal grandfather was even sentenced to death. Gorbachev said he was only reprieved when the local Communist Party leader voided the death sentence.
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