Who was the leader of the Soviet Union during the late 1980s and its dissolution?

• A. Boris Yeltsin
• B. Joseph Stalin
• C. Mikhail Gorbachev
• D. Nikita Khrushchev

Answer: (C)

The question asks who led the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and during its dissolution. Mikhail Gorbachev is the leader who fits that timeframe. He came to power in 1985 as General Secretary and later became the first and only president of the Soviet Union. His reforms—glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring)—aimed to liberalize politics and modernize the economy. These policies reduced the central government's tight control and encouraged more transparency, debate, and nationalist movements within the republics. As central authority weakened and economic troubles persisted, the Soviet Union unravelled, culminating in its dissolution in 1991. The other figures led in earlier periods or, in Yeltsin’s case, became a key leader of Russia itself rather than of the Soviet Union.