Shimon Peres Israel's 8th Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Russia has undoubtedly gone through a decade of agony since Gorbachev's revolution. Yet it is not at all clear whether these pangs could have been avoided had communism continued to rule in Russia. Communism not only arrested Russia's advance, but it was even the source of its regression. Today Russia is covered by a mantle of greater hope, and not only shrouded in the throes of agony. The land is huge, the people are intelligent and the future awaiting. The cause of its coming to a standstill in the past was the regime, and not geographical or human dimension. Indeed, the greatest contradiction in terms that distinguished the seventy years of communism was the discrepancy between the intelligence of the people and lack thereof of the government. Never in history did such an unintelligent regime spawn so many intelligent people. Until intelligence overcame. Mikhail Gorbachev, for good or for bad, headed the Russian intelligence rebellion. With his perestroika and his glasnost he conquered the imagination of many a people in Russia and many more outside of it. He was the first ruler in the communist world who did not accuse his predecessors for Russia's predicament (as did those who came before him) but rather the regime itself. He understood that his forerunners could not be changed. What could be changed were future events. It is possible that those who elected him perceived revolutionary stuff in this man, from whom sprung a new flame. Yet they never imagined how high this flame would stretch. Maybe Gorbachev himself was more aware of what needed to be discarded, than die alternatives to be adopted, it could be that neither his electors, nor he himself, were fully conscious of the extent of the devastation caused by the communist regime, the undermining of human faith, the destruction of the national landscape. When communism began to be revealed - both through its archives and its raw reality - terrible flaws emerged. All the channels of human contact seemed to be made of narrow calibers through which only fear could flow. Scientific tolerances were managed with negligence and led to catastrophes, including the Chernobyl disaster. The industrial infrastructure was irrelevant to the new era on the horizon. It sank in the quagmire of tank and cannon production, even when foes had disappeared, and was incapable of developing computers even when new competitors arose. The mechanism was eroded by nepotism and suspicion. And the secret service acted as though it were a priestly cult in charge of the Holy of Holies. And as is well known, when rituals take hold, logic retreats. Meanwhile, Russian youth was less and less impressed by the Iron Curtain and thrilled more and more by the Silver Screen of television. Gorbachev did something no one before him dared to do, or at the very least, give it a chance - He threw open all the windows and all the doors, allowing fresh air to start flowing through all the pores, throwing in disarray all the bureaucrats who were used to hiding behind barred windows and locked doors. It is interesting to note that Gorbachev is not a typical revolutionary. He is not a bitter man, he is not a distrustful person (he is certainly not overly suspicious, at times even insufficiently so), he is not jealous by nature, he is not narrow-minded. He even does not act like a demagogue, but rather as a constructive visionary. When Gromyko presented himself as a candidate for Soviet Russia's leadership, he said that one should not he too impressed by Gorbachev's appearance. "He has," he said, "iron teeth." I have to admit that since I met Gorbachev, I did not notice metal in his teeth, but if at all, I did perceive gold in his heart. Indeed, neither did he use revolutionary tactics, namely: he did not try to impose, by sheer force, the viewpoint of the few on that of the many. He should be described, more accurately, as a great political doctor: he uncovered malignant diseases in the system, and attempted to cure them with much human empathy. The patient became weaker, but stayed alive, with a good chance of recuperating. The revolution Gorbachev initiated and headed is, in my opinion, one of the three greatest revolutions of the XX century. The first revolution is the collapse of the Soviet Union, enabling the world to become one. Without the Cold War, without competing powers prepared to fuel regional hostilities to triumph in the ongoing conflict of one with the other. Since the fall of communism, the tendency of the powers is to bring peace, rather than claim triumphs. The second revolution aimed us into whole humankind, not only into one world. I refer to the liberation of women. For generations women were held in painful bondage, held in captivity by the demands of the kitchen and the delivery room, victims of their lack of control over their bodies, living under the yoke of their husbands, discriminated against by the clergy, and in one manner or the other, interior beings in the eyes of the rulers. Only half of humankind, the male half, enjoyed equality, or at least a semblance of real equality. Today, a people that does not confer full equality on women is only half a people, as was humankind only half of humankind. And the third revolution is the economic one. The move from the economy of land to the economy of science erased to a great extent political borders, racist prejudices, and the distances that stemmed therefrom. Gorbachev stood at the head of the first revolution. But he also brought Russia to the shores of the other two, creating a Russia with real equality between men and women. A Russia that also stepped into the world of science and technology, without being shackled by the doctrines of communism, understanding that science and values cannot be separated: there is not a deceptive science, nor is there a scientific deception. Science is a search for intrinsic truth: not die truth of the ruling powers (Stalinist - as was the case most of the time in Russia) but natural truth, a truth that is progressively being exposed, uncompromisingly. There is no point in denying that Gorbachev did not succeed in gaining due recognition from his people. This will come later. We, the ones well-versed in bible reading, are not surprised. The Bible has always warned the Prophets that prophecy has a price. Moses was the first among them. He paid a steep price. They acted in the name of justice, not for reward. Leaders do not pamper themselves. Yet, great leaders have the privilege of pampering their country, their people and their era. Among the leaders of the XX century, Gorbachev emerges as a great contributor, despite the fact that his contribution has still not earned the recognition it merits. He has furnished all of us with a new perspective, and for this we grant him historical thanks.