The public is invited to attend a speech by former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the University of Utah's Kinsbury Hall at 8 p.m. Oct. 7.
Tickets will be passed out on a first-come, first-serve basis, U. officials say.U. students can get tickets starting Oct. 1 at the Student Union front desk. The general public can get tickets starting at 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Kinsbury Hall ticket office. Gorbachev will speak at 8 p.m., and general seating starts at 7:45 p.m.
Gorbachev is hosted by the World Affairs Forum, a group of Utahns who regularly bring in current and former world leaders to discuss national and international issues. Before his speech, Gor-ba-chev will attend a private reception and dinner at the Little America Hotel.
His visit is underwritten by Sinclair Oil and the Associated Students of the University of Utah.
Gorbachev, 65, became leader of the former Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. He's credited with bringing democracy to the former superpower. But he fell from power in the early 1990s after Russia held elections and former Soviet member states broke away and formed their own independent governments.
Gorbachev, now generally vilified in his own land as the standard of living continues to drop, ran for Russian president earlier this year. But his campaign was basically ignored by Russians and the Russian media. He finished well back in the presidential pack and failed to make a run-off election, finally won by Boris Yeltsin.
Still, Gorbachev is greatly heralded in the West. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for bringing a more open government to the Soviet Union and many Western leaders credit Gorbachev with "freeing" more people than any other man in history.