Mikhail Gorbachev, the accidental hero

However, Gorbachev had much more success overseas. The Soviet Union surrendered in the arms race. This took the Reagan Administration by surprise because they were expecting to fight a "limited" nuclear war in the late 1980s. The Americans now had to scramble to keep up with the Soviet initiatives.

In 1987 came the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement to scrap the missile systems to be used in that "limited' nuclear war. Gorbachev and Reagan both agreed that a "nuclear war could never be won and should never be fought". These are wise words for today's era, when nuclear disarmament negotiations are failing, and the threat of nuclear war is growing.

Gorbachev also withdrew from the losing war in Afghanistan. This had gone on for a decade and cost much Russian blood and treasure.

It was a great time to be a foreign affairs commentator. For a brief shining moment, it looked as though progress was being made in international affairs.

But the economic and social chaos at home overtook Gorbachev's success overseas. The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991 and so he was a leader without a country. Indeed, in August 1991 there had been an attempted coup and he was trapped by the plotters in his holiday home, but the plot failed, and he was released.

The 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine haunted him. He was fresh into office and the only people who could advise him were those responsible for the disaster in the first place.

After he left office, he took a great interest in environmental issues. One of his achievements was the 1993 creation of Green Cross International, an organization that would have helped him in 1986 to deal with Chernobyl.

I got to meet him at this point because he joined The Club of Rome. Again, his views on the need to protect the environment and to combat the climate emergency remain very relevant today.

Gorbachev died at the age of 91. He was one of the oldest Russian men; Russian males have a life expectancy of only 73 years.

His last two decades or so were not so good. He was reviled by many Russians, who looked back with nostalgia to the "good old days" of the Soviet Union. He was blamed for ending that era of stability. He tried to re-enter politics but scored less than 5 per cent of the vote.

He lost his beloved Raisa in 1999 (they had been married for almost half a century). One of the anecdotes from my meeting the pair of them is that Raisa (though her interpreter) would suddenly halt a conversation.

Her memory had gone back to the attempted coup in August 1991. In Tsarist and communist history, one of the first tasks of the plotters is to kill the deposed rulers. The plotters did not know what to do with the Gorbachevs and so they were spared.