Mikhail Gorbachev (pronounced mih-KILE GOR-buh-choff) was born on March 2, 1931, in the tiny Russian farm village of Privolnoe. He was two years old when Communist dictator Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) ordered all private farms seized and placed under government control. Peasant farmers were forced to work on collective farms (a group of small farms). The government dictated what would be grown, how much of it, and what the farmers would be paid. Many members of Gorbachev's family worked on the collective farms.

In 1950, Gorbachev entered the distinguished Moscow State University, where he received a broad education. While in school, he met and married a philosophy student, Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko (1932-1999). He also joined the Communist Party. After graduating in 1955, he went to the city of Stavropol to work for the Party. He rose through the leadership ranks during the next fifteen years to become the Party leader in...