A wall collapses in Germany and, bim, bam, boom, the leader of the Soviet Union is out of a job—and a Soviet Union.

Okay, maybe that's a wee bit of an oversimplification.

Gorbachev never wanted the Soviet Union to dissolve—he just wanted it to be a little more chill. There were two camps among the Soviets: those who were horrified by Gorby's liberal reforms, and those who thought he couldn't keep 'em coming fast enough. There weren't really any people in between those two positions, though, so everything Gorbachev did was criticized by both sides.

When it became clear that he'd pretty much lost control of everything ever—he was kidnapped, for crying out loud—and the whole Soviet Union was coming down around his ears with people taking its remnants in directions he didn't want to go, he went ahead and stepped down.

You can check out his speech here.