Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Mikhail Gorbachev trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Mikhail Gorbachev trivia quiz covers the last leader of the Soviet Union from a combine harvester in the North Caucasus to a Pizza Hut commercial. The easy questions handle the year the USSR dissolved, what perestroika and glasnost mean, the nuclear disaster that forced openness, and the singer who lent his name to a doctrine. From there it moves into the diplomacy: the Iceland summit that almost abolished missiles, the treaty signed in Washington, the seasick summit off Malta and Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate. The harder end is for Cold War buffs: his subject at Moscow State University, the region he governed for decades, the 'acceleration' slogan, the 1988 law on cooperatives, the vice president with shaking hands, the minister who killed himself after the coup, the two republics that stood by him at the end, and his 0.5% in the 1996 election. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Gorbachev, his policies, the summits, the coup and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Cold War, Soviet Union and Ronald Reagan quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Mikhail Gorbachev holds what place in Soviet history?
Its last leader
He led the country from 1985 until it ceased to exist at the end of 1991, adding the role of head of state in 1988.
Q 02Gorbachev was born in 1931 in the village of Privolnoye, in which region of southern Russia?
North Caucasus
The village was split between Russians and ethnic Ukrainians, and both of his grandfathers spent time in labour camps under Stalin.
Q 03As a teenager Gorbachev spent his summers operating what on a collective farm?
A combine harvester
He and his father sometimes worked 20-hour days, and after a record 1948 harvest the boy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
Q 04What did Gorbachev study at Moscow State University, graduating in 1955?
Law
It was an unusual choice, as law was not a well-regarded subject in Soviet society; he was admitted without an exam thanks to his peasant background and labour medal.
Q 05Gorbachev married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in which year?
1953
She went on to teach Marxist-Leninist philosophy and defended a sociology thesis on collective-farm life.
Q 06In which southern Russian region did Gorbachev spend his early career, becoming first party secretary in 1970?
Stavropol
There he oversaw construction of the Great Stavropol Canal and sent his only daughter to an ordinary local school rather than one for party elites.
Q 07Gorbachev became general secretary in March 1985 after the death of which short-lived leader?
Konstantin Chernenko
Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko had all died within three years, and the Politburo turned to its youngest member.
Q 08Gorbachev was the eighth person to hold which post?
General Secretary of the Communist Party
He later added the newly created executive presidency of the Soviet Union, an office only he ever held.
Q 09What does the Russian word 'perestroika' literally mean?
Restructuring
The policy sought to decentralise economic decision-making and is often blamed for hastening the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.
Q 10What does 'glasnost' mean?
Openness
Under the policy Stalin-era history was re-examined, censored books reappeared in libraries and pre-publication censorship eased.
Q 11Which third slogan, meaning 'acceleration', did Gorbachev push in his first years?
Uskoreniye
He introduced it in his report to the 27th Party Congress in 1986 alongside perestroika and glasnost.
Q 12Which 1988 law allowing private businesses is called the most radical economic reform of early perestroika?
The Law on Cooperatives
An earlier Law on State Enterprise had already let factories set output by demand rather than by plan.
Q 13The 1986 explosion at which nuclear plant, and its cover-up, became a catalyst for glasnost?
Chernobyl
Soviet television did not admit the accident until the evening of 28 April, two days after reactor 4 blew up.
Q 21Who coined the phrase 'Sinatra Doctrine' on 25 October 1989?
Gennadi Gerasimov
A month earlier Poland had elected its first non-communist government since the 1940s.
Q 22Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush declared the Cold War over at a stormy 1989 summit off which island?
Malta
Rough seas earned it the nickname 'Seasick Summit', and some meetings had to be cancelled or moved.
Q 23Aboard which Soviet cruise ship were the December 1989 Bush-Gorbachev summit meetings finally held?
Maxim Gorky
Bush handed every participant a piece of the Berlin Wall as a memento.
Q 14Where did Gorbachev and Reagan hold their October 1986 summit that nearly abolished ballistic missiles?
Reykjavík
The talks collapsed over Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, but the progress made led to the INF Treaty the following year.
Q 15What US programme did Gorbachev demand be confined to the lab, sinking the 1986 Iceland deal?
The Strategic Defense Initiative
Reagan promised to share the 'Star Wars' technology; Gorbachev retorted that the Americans would not even share oil-drilling technology.
Q 16In which city did Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty on 8 December 1987?
Washington
It banned all ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 km, and the US Senate approved it 93-5 the following May.
Q 17How many missiles had the two superpowers destroyed under the INF Treaty by the 1991 deadline?
2,692
Ten years of on-site inspections followed; the US withdrew from the treaty in 2019, accusing Russia of violations.
Q 18Reagan's 1987 challenge 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' was delivered at which Berlin landmark?
The Brandenburg Gate
Speechwriter Peter Robinson kept the line in despite objections; Time noted the speech got little coverage at the time.
Q 19Gorbachev withdrew the Red Army from which nine-year war?
The war in Afghanistan
He also proposed a three-stage plan to abolish all nuclear weapons by the end of the 20th century.
Q 20Gorbachev's policy of letting Eastern Bloc states go their own way was jokingly named after which singer?
Frank Sinatra
A Foreign Ministry spokesman coined the 'Sinatra Doctrine' in October 1989, replacing the Brezhnev Doctrine of intervention.
Q 24Which West German chancellor pushed for rapid reunification against Gorbachev's wish for a gradual process?
Helmut Kohl
Thatcher and Mitterrand shared Gorbachev's unease about a dominant reunited Germany, but reunification came in 1990.
Q 25Soviet troops killed 15 protesters in January 1991 in which Baltic capital?
Vilnius
A referendum that March returned 76.4% for continued federation, but the six rebellious republics boycotted it.
Q 26Where was Gorbachev on holiday when hardliners launched their coup in August 1991?
A dacha at Foros, Crimea
The 'Gang of Eight' kept him under house arrest and announced that he was ill.
Q 27Which vice president was named as acting leader by the August 1991 coup plotters?
Gennady Yanayev
His trembling hands at the press conference made many viewers assume he was drunk.
Q 28The August 1991 coup collapsed after how many days?
3
It ran from 19 to 21 August; three young men died in a night-time clash near the Moscow White House.
Q 29Yeltsin famously spoke from atop a tank belonging to which division during the 1991 coup?
Tamanskaya
The Taman and Kantemir divisions had rolled into Moscow on Yanayev's orders along with airborne troops.
Q 30Which coup plotter, the interior minister, died by suicide with his wife as arrest loomed?
Boris Pugo
On the night of 24 August crowds also pulled down the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky outside KGB headquarters.