In pictures: The life of ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who would go on to become one of the most influential political figures of the 20th Century, was born into relative poverty on 2 March 1931 in the Stavropol region of southern Russia.

His parents both worked on collective farms and the young Gorbachev operated combine harvesters while in his teens.