Gorbachev Is Selected as Time’s Man of the Decade

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union sparked a revolution that shattered Communist control of Eastern Europe, was named Man of the Decade by Time magazine Saturday.

The Soviet president, previously named Time’s Man of the Year in 1987, was chosen because he is “the force behind the most momentous events of the ‘80s and because what he has already done will almost certainly shape the future,” Time said.

The only precedent for such a choice by the magazine was its selection of Winston Churchill as Man of the Half-Century in 1949.

The magazine said Gorbachev “has accelerated history, making possible the end of one of its most disreputable episodes, the imposition of a cruel and unnatural order on hundreds of millions of people.”

Gorbachev becomes only the fourth non-American designated twice by the magazine. One was Churchill (1940 and 1949); the others were Soviet leader Josef Stalin (1939 and 1942) and China’s Deng Xiaoping (1978 and 1985).

Time has been naming a Man of the Year since 1927, choosing the “person who, for better or worse, has had the most impact on the year’s events.” The first award went to aviator Charles Lindbergh; last year’s winner was Earth as planet of the year.