From the author of Gulf-Diary of the Microchip War. This concise history, also re-edited by the author of the original 1991 paperback, whilst not intended as a biography, charts the meteoric rise of Mikhail Gorbachev through the ranks of the Communist Party but primarily covers events during the 1991 August coup that shook the world, and the follow on effects this had on the USSR. The title reference ‘fall of a hero’ refers in essence to the change of opinion within Soviet society of the man who initiated Perestroika.