Connection Across Time: Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last premier of the USSR before it collapsed in 1991. Under his rule, with his democratized reforms, glasnost and perestroika, and his economic policy, the Soviet Union began to crumble slowly under his rule from 1985-1991. In 1991 Gorbachev was captured by Soviet Hardliners known as Apparatchiks, in an attempt by the Apparatchiks to stop the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In 1996 he created the social democratic party of Russia. He resigned as party leader from that in 2004. Gorbachev has remained very active in world affairs, opposing the US bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and and the Iraqi war in 2003.

He has also credited Vladimir Putin for stabilizing Russia after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, but has lately taken to criticizing the "tag team" of Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, saying that they are sliding back on democracy and increasing corruption. He decried this retreat from democracy, calling the government an "imitation democracy" with "all power in the executive branch".  He criticized Putin directly, saying "to go further on the path of tightening the screws, having laws that limit the rights and freedoms of people, attacking the news media and organizations of civil society, is a destructive path with no future."

Having read this, I doubt very much that Gorbachev ever wanted to revitalize Communism in Russia.