Mikhail Gorbachev was recognizable for the prominent birthmark on his forehead. The mark is a port-wine stain, a type of vascular birthmark caused by an excess or abnormal arrangement of small blood vessels near the skin’s surface.
Gorbachev became internationally famous as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and as the country’s final leader from 1990 until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Photographs and television coverage made the reddish-purple mark one of his most distinctive physical features.
A common mix-up is calling it a scar or assuming it was caused by an injury. It was a birthmark, meaning it was present from birth or appeared shortly afterward. Port-wine stains can occur anywhere on the body and may darken or thicken over time, but Gorbachev’s was chiefly notable because of his public profile.
The mark became so closely associated with him that it was frequently referenced in political cartoons and caricatures during the final years of the Cold War.