Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and former Head of State of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev speak at Hard Rock Live on April 16.
Gorbachev, is now one of the most influential political leaders of modern times, speak to "Peace in the 21st Century" at Hard Rock Live. A Russian reformer in favor of democracy over communism, Gorbachev served to ease tensions between the Soviet Union and Democratic nations of the West and contributed heavily to the end of the "Cold War". Gorbachev is currently the leader of the Union of Social-Democrats, a Russian political party.
Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was born in the village of Privolnoye near Stavropol, Russia. From the age of 13 he worked on a collective farm, where his father was a mechanic. He was an exceptional student and earned a law degree at Moscow University where he joined the Communist party and became Secretary of the law department's Young Communist League. After returning to the Stavropol area he rose in the League hierarchy to become Regional Secretary of the League, and in 1961 first became a delegate to the Party Congress. He spent the 1960s working his way up through the territorial bodies of the Party and continuing his education in agronomy and economics Photo by: Johnny Louis/jlnphotography.com