Alyona Minkovski

The artwork for this piece was developed during the Rhode Island School of Design course "Artists Report" and supported by the Center for Artistic Inquiry and Reporting. In the wave of obituaries and reflections that poured out since Mikhail Gorbachev’s passing, most accounts described the complicated and even tragic legacy of a political leader who won the respect of the world, yet was cast aside at home.

In the wave of obituaries and reflections that poured out since Mikhail Gorbachev’s passing, most accounts described the complicated and even tragic legacy of a political leader who won the respect of the world, yet was cast aside at home. He set out to reform the Soviet Union only to lose it entirely, and in the process, lost the support of many Russians, whether because they mourned the loss of empire and identity, or because his attempts at modernization fell short.