Schwarzenegger calls Gorbachev his ‘hero’

Hollywood actor and ex-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a heartfelt tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev after his death earlier on Tuesday, saying history would remember him as a “hero” who “dismantled the communist system.”

Schwarzenegger took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to recall meeting the one-time Soviet president and to honor his life accomplishments after his passing at the age of 91.

“There’s an old saying, ‘Never meet your heroes.’ I think that’s some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard,” he wrote. “Mikhail Gorbachev was one of my heroes, and it was an honor and a joy to meet him. I was unbelievably lucky to call him a friend. All of us can learn from his fantastic life.”

He will be remembered for all time as a hero who dismantled the communist system despite what it meant for his own power.

The Austrian-American actor, who also served as California’s governor from 2003 to 2011, went on to say that Gorbachev rose to the “top” of the Soviet system, and had the “wisdom” and “courage” to change it after concluding it did not “work for the people.”

Gorbachev’s passing was first reported on Tuesday by Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, which said he lost the battle with a “serious and prolonged illness.” The late leader will be buried in the Russian capital alongside his wife, Raisa, who died in 1999.

READ MORE: ‘If not me, who?’: Mikhail Gorbachev ended Cold War and saved the world, but failed to save Soviet Union

“He belongs to history now, and I know he’s overjoyed to be reunited with his dear Raisa, once again living one of the greatest love stories of all time,” Schwarzenegger added, calling on his fans to follow Gorbachev’s example if they ever have “a chance to make an impact” and “leave a better world.”

Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, and in 1990 made history as the first president of the USSR. He would also be its last, however, as the Soviet Union broke up at the end of 1991.