IN the modern Soviet/Russian pantheon, while Vladimir Lenin will be remembered for laying the foundations of the USSR, Joseph Stalin for defending the country from the Nazi onslaught of World War II (as well as murderous internal purges), Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday, will forever be associated with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. That he intended to dissolve the world`s geographically largest country, and second superpower is unlikely. But the reforms he initiated after taking up the reins of the USSR in the mid-1980s set in motion the death throes of the communist nation, and with it the demise of the erstwhile Eastern bloc. History will, therefore, remember Gorbachev for ending the Cold War and thereafter sealing the fate of the USSR. The latter task was achieved, perhaps unwittingly, through his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). These policies helped lift the lid off discontent in the USSR. In our part of the world, Gorbachev will also be remembered for pulling the Red Army out of Afghanistan, and ending the USSR`s decade-long imperial folly.

Many in the West have feted Gorbachev for helping end the Cold War. However, this epochal moment which marked the `end of history`, as per Francis Fukuyama also ushered in the beginning of American unipolarity, which is now being challenged by a resurgent Russia, and a proactive China. At home, though, feelings relating to Gorbachev remained mixed, as Russian living standards dropped considerably during the chaos of Boris Yeltsin`s rule, while the Soviet command economy was devoured and divided up by rapacious oligarchs in an ugly display of hyper-capitalism.

As Vladimir Putin views it, the end of the USSR was the `biggest geopolitical tragedy` of the 20th century. Certainly, while the USSR was imperfect in many ways, it did bring health and education to millions of its citizens. Ironically, as the world marks Mikhail Gorbachev`s passing, his country and the West are again on a collision course, much as they were during the Cold War.