Mikhail Gorbachev is presented with a stole by Eureka College President J. David Arnold. Photo: Tina Burton. (click to enlarge)

By Sherri Wood Emmons, DisciplesWorld managing editor

EUREKA, Ill. (4/3/09) — Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, received an honorary doctorate degree from Eureka College on March 27.

The Disciples-related college is the alma mater of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who worked with Gorbachev in the 1980s to downsize the two countries’ nuclear arsenals through two disarmament pacts.

Gorbachev’s visit began with a walk through the Ronald Reagan Peace Garden, which includes a slab of the old Berlin Wall. Recalling Reagan’s famous demand, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” Gorbachev noted, “It didn’t have much of an impact on us. After all, we knew his initial career was as an actor.”

During an afternoon convocation at the college, Gorbachev also recalled his first summit with Reagan in 1985.

After the summit, Gorbachev was asked his first impression of Reagan. “I said, ‘He’s a real dinosaur.’”

Gorbachev said he couldn’t explain his choice of words, but when Reagan was asked a similar question, he described Gorbachev as a “die-hard Bolshevik.”

“So I think there is a balance there,” Gorbachev said.

“Of course today we can joke, we can laugh,” he noted. “But when all is said and done, he [Reagan] was a great man.”

Gorbachev described the process the two presidents went through in establishing a relationship of trust: “It was difficult. Both of us were men of principle. But based on the new realities we were facing, on the danger that all of us on the planet could one day become victims of a nuclear war, we were able to come to some conclusions.

Recalling the atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust, he said, “To transcend all of that, it’s incredible. And so still I am amazed, and perhaps more amazed now than before, that we were able to pull it off.”

Of his decision to implement policies that would transform the Soviet Union, Gorbachev said, “In the mid-1980s, people were needing change. And the slogan at that time was, ‘We can no longer live like this.’ That was one of the main impulses to me to start perestroika (government restructuring).”

His government began decentralizing the old Soviet system, allowing more political openness, and opening the country to the West.

Gorbachev was, he said, a “true believer” in communism. He joined the Communist Party as a teen and credits the system with his opportunities for education. His parents, he said, were barely literate. It was the Party that gave him the opportunity to leave the rural area of his youth and travel to Moscow for college.

But in the 1980s, he felt the people of the Soviet Union needed “more dignity, more opportunities.”

“There still is debate about what was done right, and what wasn’t done. But one fact can’t be denied: The Cold War was ended, and we started the process of eliminating nuclear weapons,” Gorbachev said.

Asked about the state of U.S.–Russian relations today, Gorbachev recalled, “By 1989–1990, the atmosphere of the Soviet people toward the American people could be characterized by the word euphoria. … Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

"Many people in Russia believe that Americans cannot be trusted,” he continued.

But, after meeting with President Barack Obama, he said, “Our relations can improve.”

Gorbachev listed areas where the two countries should cooperation — on the environment, in space exploration, and in the struggle against terrorism — and said, “The main issue is how to rebuild the trust.”

“You younger people should work on that, too,” he told his college audience.