He was born into a lower class family in a small town in Russia in March of 1931. Mikhail Gorbachev attended school at Moscow University, where he studied law and received his degree in 1955. Two years earlier, he had married Raisa. In 1966, at the age of 35, Gorbachev graduated again from another school with a concentration in economics and agriculture. Mikhail moved into the political arena when he was named the Secretary of Agriculture in 1970. He continued to work his way up in the hierarchy and was named the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev remained leader for six years, but the Soviet Union dissolved near the end of his reign.
