Mikhail Gorbachev at a Perstroika symposium

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev smiles slightly as he attends a '20th Anniversary of Perestroika' symposium in Washington, DC. The symposium, hosted by the Frank Foundation, took place on October 22, 2005. Mikhail Gorbachev (genially nicknamed 'Gorby') was born in 1931, so he turned 74 the year this photo was taken. Perestroika, a Russian word meaning "restructuring," was a policy of Soviet economic and political reform, promoted by Gorbachev.