“One of my heroes”: Schwarzenegger mourns Gorbachev
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“One of My Heroes”
Schwarzenegger mourns Gorbachev
08/31/22 11:31 AM
People around the world mourn Mikhail Gorbachev and remember the legacy of the deceased. Arnold Schwarzenegger also pays tribute to the former president of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was his “hero,” according to the ex-California governor.
Arnold Schwarzenegger mourned the loss of Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in Moscow on Tuesday at the age of 91, in an Instagram post. “There’s an old saying, ‘Never meet your heroes.’ I think that’s some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard.”
Gorbachev was “one of my heroes,” writes the former California governor and Hollywood star in his dedication. “And it was an honor and a pleasure to meet him. I have been incredibly lucky to call him a friend. We can all learn from his wonderful life.”
“He will always be remembered as a hero who dismantled the communist system, despite what it meant to his own power,” Schwarzenegger recalls of the Nobel laureate’s legacy. He showed the wisdom and courage to “look around and say, ‘This isn’t working for people, someone has to fix it. If not me, who? If not now, when?’”
“If it’s not me, who is?”
The former Soviet leader is now part of history and “I know he is overjoyed to be reunited with his beloved Raisa, one of the greatest love stories of all time”. Ultimately, the 75-year-old adds: “Hopefully when someone sees an opportunity to make a difference and leave a better world for the next generation, they think of Gorbachev and wonder, ‘If it’s not me “who? not now, when?” I know I will.”
Other celebrities, including politicians in particular, also paid tribute to Gorbachev on social media. Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on Twitter: “A courageous reformer, a far-sighted politician and statesman died with him. His courage for change, his will for transparency and his inflexibility made him what he was.”
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote in a statement that she heard the news of Gorbachev’s death with great sadness. Gorbachev was a “unique world politician”. “May the memory of his historic achievement make it possible to pause, especially during these terrible weeks and months of the Russian war against Ukraine,” the former chancellor continued. “Gorbachev wrote world history. He showed how a single statesman can change the world for the better”. Without Gorbachev’s courage “in glasnost and perestroika, ie in openness and restructuring, the peaceful revolution in the GDR would not have been possible.”
Several foreign politicians had previously commented on Gorbachev’s death. US President Joe Biden praised him as a “man of remarkable vision”. After decades of brutal political repression, he advocated democratic reforms in the Soviet Union. Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: “I have always admired the courage and integrity he showed to end the Cold War peacefully.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed his deepest condolences on the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. Peskov announced that Putin would send the family a telegram tomorrow morning.
