In a historic letter to Gorbachev, the great Imam had invited the leaders of Soviet Union to conduct serious research about the dynamic teachings of Islam.
According to Imam, the Islam was sole school of thought and divine religion which could present a comprehensive solution to the problems facing the then communist regime.
The great Imam said that the Islamic thought could relieve the Soviet society and youths from clutches of moral decline and spiritual crisis.
The great leader of the Muslim world also had predicted the collapse of communist system in near future. Imam’s divine prediction became true in later years at very sensitive juncture of history.
The letter was widely welcomed by Gorbachev and he took some practical steps and opened Islamic research centers and promised to take Imam’s advises very serious. He also sent his then foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze with a letter to say his thanks and appreciation for Imam Khomeini. .
Imam Khomeini received Shevardnadze and addressed him that: “I wanted to open a window to the bigger world meaning the afterlife which is the eternal world for Mr. Gorbachev"
The developments come as Shevardnadze’s spokeswoman said that he died on Monday afternoon following a long illness.
The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev while expressing sorrow over the passing of his “friend” said that Shevardnadze was an “extraordinary, talented person.”
"He was always quick to find a way of connecting with different people, with youngsters and the older generation. He had a bright character, a Georgian temperament," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also offered his condolences to his "family, as well as the Georgian people."
Shevardnadze was born in 1928 in the city of Lanchkhuti, and joined the Communist Party's youth movement in 1946 and became the party's chief in Georgia in 1972.
He became the Soviet Union’s foreign minister in 1985 and is credited for helping end the Cold War.
Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1992, he became Georgia’s head of state and was forced to step down, amid huge pressure from tens of thousands of protesters, in November 2003 after opposition allegations of irregularities in parliamentary polls.