correspondent: although mikael gorbachev was a staunch communist, the communist regime collapse as ault of his reforms. the entire soviet union collapsed in 1991, almost 70 years after it was founded. >> translator: i that region. someone who renounces their countries -- i call that region. someone who renounces their ideals, no longer loyal to the soviet people, that is a traitor. certainly the country we live in today is not ideal, but it is better than the totalitarian state call the soviet union that we used to live in, and we owe that to gorbachev. >> translator: gorbachev did not leave the country with the help of the kgb secret service, but with the support of human rights activists, intellectuals, and people with humanistic ideals. on the other hand, if you ask young people from my generation what they associate with the current system, none of them will mention the terms freedom, openness, and honesty. [applause] correspondent: at 90, mikael gorbachev has been celebrated by some sections of russian society for his profound social reforms. the rest condemn him for being the a

he also gives credit to margaret thatcher, and helen, and mikael gorbachev for their role in enablingman freedom to emerge. and reagan told his audience, he was not sure whether or not gorbachev had listened to him when he said mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall, he was not sure if gorbachev had listened to him, but neither he nor the rulers of eastern europe, could ignore the much louder chance of demonstrators in the streets in dresden, in the churches and schools and on the farms, a once silent people found their voice and a battering ram to knock down walls, real and imagined. because of that the political map of europe, has been re-written. so what about the museum? well if you go to the reagan museum, which i recommend i think it's wonderful i've been to many of them, i think the reagan museum is exceptional. when you go there if you get to the large foreign policy section, once you get through it there's these doors, you can see from my amateur photography, and if you look through it this big video playing of reagan and gorbachev, and what they did to bring an end through the c

mikael gorbachev, who was the unique leader in history, a true intellectual revolutionary who decided to do that really unusual thing for a leader. he decided not just to recognize a problem, but to do something about it. because a series of soviet leaders from the mid 1970s on had come to the conclusion, the inescapable conclusion that their system was not working. that is to say, they knew they were falling behind, falling behind militarily, most importantly falling behind economically and socially and more importantly, they look to western europe, that region right across the border, that region in the sense in which russian leaders, if you think of the soviets as the geopolitical inheritors as -- the russian leaders had for centuries, long to become a part of europe and more importantly, i think long to be accepted in europe. they looked and they saw europe advancing much faster than they. in fact, they had pretty good numbers on this stuff. and they were able to calculate and spring in 1989, the total soviet food consumption level for the -- is about where was the 1917, so after

we had mikael targeted off -- we had mikael gorbachev. the museum plays a great role in that. westminster college platform is for world leaders to make speeches is extraordinary and it is a ripple effect from what happened here on this campus 75 years ago. we are still living with it. history is not old. we are influenced by it today. host: talk about the breakthrough statue. tell us why it is there? guest: ed winter sands, who is churchill's in her, -- who is churchill's granddaughter and an artist wanted to relocate eight sections of the wall from berlin to fulton as a sculpture. she did something interesting. she carved through the abstract mail and female figure so you can break through between communism and freedom. she titled it "the sculpture of breakthrough." she is an artist and has a remarkable work on the campus outside the museum. it is an extraordinary! on the story -- exclaimation point. host: this has been a great conversation. we really appreciate you coming on and talking with us about the history of the iron curtain speech and your churchill museum. what can