Mikhail Gorbachev Political views on the 12 axes

Proposed a new Union Treaty in 1991 that gave the republics more power, but opposed their full independence, so he sits near the middle.

Allowed the first contested Soviet elections in 1989 and ended the Communist Party's constitutional monopoly in 1990, though he never faced a popular vote himself.

Glasnost loosened censorship and freed dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov in 1986, but troops still fired on protesters in Tbilisi, Baku and Vilnius, a slight lean toward Freedom.

His 'new thinking' sought cooperation with the West, arms-control treaties and the right of Eastern European countries to choose their own path.

Signed the INF Treaty that scrapped a whole class of nuclear missiles and pulled Soviet troops out of Afghanistan by 1989, a lean toward Pacifist.

Allowed joint ventures with foreign firms from 1987 and sought closer links with world markets, a modest step away from Soviet self-sufficiency toward Globalist.

Wanted to renew socialism rather than abandon it, keeping public ownership and welfare while allowing small private cooperatives.

The 1987 law on state enterprises and the 1988 law on cooperatives let in some market activity, but most of the economy stayed under the plan.

A Communist who called himself an atheist, yet he eased curbs on the churches and passed a law on freedom of conscience in 1990.

Opened Soviet culture to banned books, films and open debate, a modest progressive lean, though his 1985 anti-alcohol campaign was socially strict.

Called for faster scientific and technical progress to modernise Soviet industry, while the 1986 Chernobyl disaster forced new openness about nuclear safety.