Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has reportedly been hospitalized but has said that he is determined to fight for his life.
The 83-year-old told the press that his health is deteriorating but did not divulge any details about his illness, reported News.com.au.
He was earlier hospitalized in June 2013 for a general check-up.
The Nobel Peace laureate became a Soviet leader in 1985 and introduced sweeping political and economic reforms that came to be known as glasnost ("openness") and "perestroika" (rebuilding).
His reforms gave the Moscow-controlled republics enough strength to declare independence, and caused Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to sign a deal to dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991.
The last Soviet leader has since lamented the dissolution of the Soviet Union, explaining that his reforms were meant to save the crumbling country through modernization instead of breaking it apart.
