Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died aged 91.
Gorbachev came to power in 1985 at a time when the Soviet economy was on the brink of collapse. He introduced a radical reform programme called Perestroika.
25 years on from Perestroika, in 2012, Louise Hidalgo spoke to three people who remembered those exciting days in Moscow.
(Photo: Mikhail Gorbachev (centre right) meets with participants of the Warsaw Pact Foreign Ministers' Committee in Moscow on March 25, 1987 Credit: AFP / Getty Images)