Who was the Soviet leader at the end of the Cold War?

The Soviet leader at the end of the Cold War was Mikhail Gorbachev. He served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 and is well-known for initiating significant reforms within the Soviet Union, such as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). These policies aimed to increase transparency and democratization in governance, as well as to revitalize the economy. Gorbachev's willingness to engage with the West and reduce nuclear tensions led to the de-escalation of the Cold War. His leadership was instrumental in the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, which signaled the end of the Cold War era.

In contrast, Leonid Brezhnev, Nikita Khrushchev, and Vladimir Lenin were leaders during earlier periods in Soviet history, with Brezhnev known for his era of détente, Khrushchev for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Lenin for the Bolshevik Revolution. Their policies and leadership occurred long before the critical events that defined the conclusion of the Cold War.