The archive footage filmed in Moscow in October 2017 features former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev at book events for 'Staying Optimistic' his collection of articles, 'Gorbachev in Life'.

During the second presentation Gorbachev said that his long career felt like many different lifetimes.

"Can you feel how I've lived all these years? I think I have lived at least a dozen or maybe even a few lives. At least the biggest loss is that Raisa [wife] did not lived this whole life [with me]," ex politician shared.

He also said that he believed the biggest events in his life had happened by chance.

"It never occurred to me that I would have to go through such a complicated path. Even already in that position answering the question, 'Are you happy or not?' I said, 'You know, there are no happy reformers'," Gorbachev added.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the USSR, died at the age of 91 on Tuesday at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.  

According to media reports, he passed away after a serious and prolonged illness.  

Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931. He graduated in law from Moscow State University in 1955 and in 1967 completed a correspondence course at the Stavropol Agricultural Institute (now the Stavropol State Agrarian University).   

Gorbachev joined the CPSU in 1952, became a member of the Central Committee in 1971 and was later elected Secretary General in 1985 after Konstantin Chernenko's death.   

He was elected the first president of the USSR in March 1990 and stepped down on December 25, 1991.   

Gorbachev became the main proponent of glasnost ('openness') and perestroika ('reconstruction').

He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and is widely considered to have singlehandedly ended the Cold War.  

After stepping down as president of the USSR, he pursued social and literary activities.