Fidel Castro Played Major Role in Global History - Gorbachev

Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev called Cuban former president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro "a great man and a unique person."

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Cuban former president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro played a significant role in changes that had affected the history and minds around the world, Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev said Saturday.

Fidel Castro died on Friday, at the age of 90 years old, as announced by his brother, incumbent Cuban President Raul Castro, on state television earlier in the day.

"The biggest justice in the world — people come into the world and if they succeed, they live such lives as Fidel Castro, placing themselves on record in history and in people's minds and pass away… He was a representative of our time and, of course, had played a huge role in the events that took place in the world then," Gorbachev told the Govorit Moskva radio station.

He added that Castro was a great man and a unique person.

Fidel Castro was born in 1926 in the Cuban village of Biran. He became Cuban prime minister in February 1959 and the country's president in 1976. In 2008, he announced his resignation as head of state. He remained the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party until April 19, 2011, when he officially announced his resignation from the post.