Who Was Alive

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991

Born 2 March 1931 · died 30 August 2022, aged 91

Who was alive at the same time as Mikhail Gorbachev?

  1. Thomas Edison
  2. Sigmund Freud
  3. Marie Curie
  4. Mahatma Gandhi
  5. Winston Churchill
  6. Joseph Stalin
  7. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
  8. Albert Einstein
  9. Pablo Picasso
  10. Charlie Chaplin
  11. Adolf Hitler
  12. Salvador Dalí
  13. Ronald Reagan
  14. John F. Kennedy
  15. Nelson Mandela
  16. Elizabeth II
  17. Martin Luther King Jr.
  18. Mikhail Gorbachev
  19. Joe Biden
  20. Donald Trump
  21. George W. Bush
  22. Vladimir Putin
  23. Michael Jackson
  24. Barack Obama
Drag across the timeline to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Mikhail Gorbachev was born, Adolf Hitler was 41, Albert Einstein was 51, Ronald Reagan was 20, Nelson Mandela was 12 and Mahatma Gandhi was 61.

When Mikhail Gorbachev died, Barack Obama was 61, Donald Trump was 76, Vladimir Putin was 69, George W. Bush was 76 and Joe Biden was 79.

Born during Mikhail Gorbachev’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and Jimmy Wales.

Not quite contemporaries: Vladimir Lenin died 7 years before Mikhail Gorbachev was born, Franz Kafka died 7 years before Mikhail Gorbachev was born, Sarah Bernhardt died 8 years before Mikhail Gorbachev was born and Theodore Roosevelt died 12 years before Mikhail Gorbachev was born.

Compare

All 1,265 contemporaries we track

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Adolf Hitler 1889 – 1945
  4. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  5. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  6. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  7. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  8. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  9. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  10. George W. Bush born 1946
  11. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  12. Joe Biden born 1942
  13. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  14. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  15. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  16. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  17. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  18. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 1879–1881 – 1938
  19. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  20. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  21. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  22. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  23. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  24. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  25. Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  26. Bill Gates born 1955
  27. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  28. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  29. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  30. Shakira born 1977
  31. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  32. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  33. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  34. Lionel Messi born 1987
  35. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  36. Bill Clinton born 1946
  37. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  38. Basshunter born 1984
  39. Angela Merkel born 1954
  40. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  41. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  42. François Hollande born 1954
  43. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  44. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  45. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  46. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  47. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  48. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  49. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  50. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  51. John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  52. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  53. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  54. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  55. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  56. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  57. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  58. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  59. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  60. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  61. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  62. Elon Musk born 1971
  63. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  64. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  65. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  66. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  67. Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  68. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  69. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  70. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  71. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  72. Lady Gaga born 1986
  73. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  74. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  75. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  76. Madonna born 1958
  77. Kamala Harris born 1964
  78. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  79. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  80. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  81. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  82. Xi Jinping born 1953
  83. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  84. Naruhito born 1960
  85. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  86. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  87. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  88. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  89. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  90. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
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  92. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  93. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  94. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  95. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  96. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  97. Bob Dylan born 1941
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  100. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  101. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
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  104. J. K. Rowling born 1965
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  107. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  108. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  109. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  110. Taylor Swift born 1989
  111. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
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  115. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
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  127. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  128. Narendra Modi born 1950
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  131. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  132. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
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  134. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  135. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  136. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  137. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  138. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  139. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  140. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  141. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  142. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  143. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  144. Tenzin Gyatso born 1935
  145. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  146. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  147. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  148. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  149. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  150. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971

The 150 best known are listed.