Another of his early moves was replacing long-time foreign minister (*) Andrei Gromyko with Eduard Shevardnadze.  
This ruler faced the August Coup, led by a group that formed the State Emergency Committee; that uprising led to the arrest of the Gang of Eight. One of his first actions was to institute a tax on liquor that caused a disastrous reduction in government revenues because of an increased black market for alcohol.  Another of his early moves was replacing long-time foreign minister (*) Andrei Gromyko with Eduard Shevardnadze.  One of his policies, gospriyomka, referred to stricter state supervision of quality control in manufacturing, while the Law of Cooperatives was included in his policy of openness, which he termed Glasnost.  Also known for enacting restructuring, or perestroika, for 10 points, name this last leader of communist Russia who was succeeded by Boris Yeltzin.
This ruler faced the August Coup, led by a group that formed the State Emergency Committee; that uprising led to the arrest of the Gang of Eight.
Mikhail {Gorbachev}