Joshua Sanborn, professor of history and chair of Russian and East European Studies, will speak on “Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War” at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3 in the auditorium of the Williams Center for the  Arts. The talk is free and open to the public.

Sanborn will briefly discuss Gorbachev’s personal history and his rise up the ladder of the Communist Party before turning to his actions as the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Under Gorbachev’s watch, the Communist Party loosened its grip on the Soviet economy, held competitive elections, and significantly reoriented its foreign policy. The early 1980s had been one of the coldest periods of the Cold War. Gorbachev dramatically transformed the situation by initiating radically new arms control talks, ending the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and releasing Soviet control over communist states in Eastern Europe. These reforms defused an extremely dangerous global conflict, but they also led to a period of economic and political turmoil in the former Soviet Union. The lecture will conclude with an assessment of Gorbachev’s mixed legacy in Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe.

For information on Sanborn’s teaching areas and research interests, visit his website.