Letter of Support: President Mikhail Gorbachev on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord
President Mikhail Gorbachev is a Russian and former Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990. A full translation of the letter can be found below:
Mikhail Gorbachev’s Address to Members of International Interfaith Organizations
Dear friends,
I was glad to learn from my friend George Shultz that on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing your organizations are planning a joint statement on the need to abolish nuclear weapons. The text that I reviewed is a passionate appeal to join the fight for a nuclear weapon-free future for all mankind.
You are right to appeal to politicians, diplomats, religious leaders, youth, scientists, environmentalists. But above all, you are appealing to citizens – which means to every person. For today, fighting for the abolition of nuclear weapons is the civic duty of each and every one of us.
I am sure that, thanks to initiatives such as yours, there will be more and more people around the world who understand it.
Together with you, I am appealing to the citizens of all countries:
Put pressure on your leaders, politicians and elected officials, keep telling them again and again that the very existence of nuclear weapons poses a deadly threat to humanity. Demand that they take concrete action so that the arsenals of nuclear weapons get smaller with every passing year!
We started on the road to a world without nuclear weapons in Reykjavik. It turned out to be a difficult and thorny path. But there must be no other goal than the complete elimination – the abolition of nuclear weapons.
I wish you the strength of spirit, dedication and perseverance in advancing that goal.
Sincerely,
Mikhail Gorbachev
