Gail and Mikhail

After contributing editor Gail Sheehy's profile of Mikhail Gorbachev appeared in the February 1990 issue of V.F., an intrigued reader went to her local bookstore to buy a biography of the Soviet leader. To her surprise, she couldn't find one. Much had— and has since—been written about Gorbachev, but until this month, when HarperCollins brings out Sheehy's new book, The Man Who Changed the World: The Lives of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, there was no fullscale portrait of his life and character. Even post-glasnost, it's no mean feat to research the life of a Soviet general secretary; Sheehy spent several months in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe (before and after the V.F. profile) tracking down Gorbachev's childhood friends, college classmates, and early mentors, and piercing the veil of secrecy that surrounded the Kremlin. The result is a lively, intimate account of his youth and rise to power, as well as a thoughtful look at the psychological struggles of a man who tried to engineer a social revolution without losing his power. Even as Gorbachev picks up his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, he is increasingly reviled and embattled at home. Sheehy's biography gives new insight into the often tragic story of one of the century's most important figures.