Pragmatism is a trend in philosophy, dating back to the second half of the 19th century. But when it comes to world politicians and statesmen, the reading is far more complicated than for the leading philosophers. Why? Because it is one thing to build a strategy, and another to argue for it as successful, and then to model it yourself and ensure its implementation.
Such and difficult is the case of Gorbachev. You see a dream of Lenin's argumentation, you follow it in detail and place the symbolic element. This elementary communism leads us to another closed change! If we do not change the path to the “I“ of each of us, we cannot reach that perfection that Lenin dreams of for the other state - Russia.
Details of the search for the other state begin in mid-1985. and it was so complex, so impossible that it was difficult to perceive and evaluate the personal character, and the cult of personality was paradoxical.
And to this day how Gorbachev's appearance in the elite of the Soviet Union and his admission to the top was our only hope for our common success. The strength of this pragmatic man was strikingly noticed and appreciated above all by everyone, as well as by the enemy. And he, and the enemy, realized the potential for tomorrow in the world and allowed the effect of the new communist leader. Thus was born the new idea for the new policy of the new eastern leader and leader of a fundamentally different suitability.
Gorbachev began to divide reality into its fields one by one and too early understood the hard truth and the unique paradox of lies. Dissecting the problems was absolutely necessary!
For 9 years, from December 1979 to February 1989, the USSR waged a war in Afghanistan, where it tried to guarantee the continuation of the power of the pro-Soviet government. The war in Afghanistan became the “Vietnam of the Soviet Union“, as Oleg Egorov noted. This war cost the Soviets 15,000 lives, as Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to US President Jimmy Carter, once said.
At the meeting in Sofia with Professor Krastyo Petkov, Gorbachev said: “We have ended this dark chapter“ after 25 years— in 2014.
But the fall of Afghanistan — in December 1989 — revealed Gorbachev's new principle. Then he said: “Moscow no longer wants to lose, it is not able to support the communist governments in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, regardless: from that moment on, Eastern Europe is free to choose its own path!“
By the end of 1989, all communist governments had fallen everywhere. The Warsaw Pact collapsed and ceased to exist. Only the “Berlin Wall“ remained, and Gorbachev tore it down too.
At one time, US President Ronald Reagan called on the Soviet leader in 1987 during a speech in Berlin. West and East Germany were divided by this wall. Then Gorbachev responded to his call and only two years later, not only with words, but with direct actions, the Berlin Wall fell. Later, on July 31, 1991, during the visit of the American President Bush-Gorbachev at a press conference in Moscow, he did everything possible to make disarmament the number one goal. At that time, Gorbachev's most important achievement was the slowdown of the nuclear arms race. Medium-range missiles up to 5,500 kilometers were eliminated, which to a certain extent solved this huge problem. There are serious contradictions within Russia on these issues, but if we follow the four main steps of Mikhail Gorbachev, the situation in the world is different. Gorbachev's power is perceived differently today.
And this different way does not only concern armament, but a fundamentally different way of life. Gorbachev visits other communist countries to see how far they have come in comparison, for example, his visits to Bulgaria are several: the first in 1985, the second on May 9, 2002, then on October 7, 2010 and on April 20, 2014. In May 2002, Gorbachev spoke to journalist Kevorkian for 2.5 hours about the policy of glasnost, which led to the democratization of the regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. At his next meeting with President Stoyanov on October 7, 2010, Gorbachev emphasized that perestroika brought the world to its most significant change. And at the conference "Europe Looks East" under the auspices of his foundation "Forum for a New Policy" he and Gorbachev formulated the thesis about another change in the elite - now with new activity in Asia, America and Latin America.
His change over the years was noticeable visibly, directly and strongly. When he started to speak, he was strongly mobilized, argued and expressed himself precisely, and always took into account the difference in attitudes to prove the leading topic. I noticed this strong political approach directly when we were at the meeting with him and Prof. Krastyo Petkov. Standing next to Gorbachev and talking to him was a real political satisfaction. For someone who has dealt with politics. The strong impact and wonderful preparation of Professor Petkov made me compare Gorbachev's charisma as a world leader with his strong and respectful moral precision of arguments.
We had one idea of the Brezhnev type of leaders like Todor Zhivkov and the other extreme like that of Andrey Lukanov. It was through Lukanov, as his first assistant, that I knew a lot, a lot about Gorbachev, but when I stood opposite him at the meeting with Professor Petkov, I had already surpassed myself!
Having this opportunity to receive and realize this trust was very important, because from a witness and assistant, most deeply at Lukanov's request, I already saw the original source of the ideas for the radical break in Eastern Europe with the other type of materialization.
As for the distortion of the national mentality, the enrichment and oligarchization of the state, today Gorbachev is not at all guilty of yesterday. He gave the most important thing - the escape from scholasticism and the harm of elementary communism. Gorbachev introduced the power of the individual, and the states and the lust for wealth did not introduce the necessary state control and an effective justice system.
In our country, Lukanov also asked for this, but it came down to the bullet. Zhivkov's supporters could not forgive him, they accused him of giving birth to capitalism, of determining tomorrow with the "red briefcases", of targeting all those who had abused foreign trade companies.
None other than Lukanov managed to achieve success in negotiating the foreign debt as of October 9, 1989, saving 50 percent. None other than Lukanov gave the idea of pursuing until his death, together with the CIA and the FBI, the remnants of 388 WTOs, which had been appropriated by 704 people.
But, unfortunately, the action of the bullet of December 2, 1996 eliminated his great power. Thus, Bulgaria failed to retain Gorbachev's follower and reborn the oligarchy in a more brazen way.
If we go back to history and see what Burov said, that every 35 years a great change begins in Bulgaria, then we are here today. Whether we will go towards it, or return to the formulation of M. Gorbachev's priorities, depends only on us.
But today, in this backward country, with 1 percent of soup cooks and 99 percent of hungry Bulgarians, it will not succeed anywhere!