Gorby is a pretty typical apparatchik of his generation. (The so-called children of the Secret Speech.) He represented the general consensus of the CPSU at the time -- if he hadn't he wouldn't have been put in power.
I don't have much esteem for Gorbachev, but I will say this much for him -- he's not corrupt. Which is astoundingly rare in Russian politics.
_________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail