Good or bad at the start? Hurt very old head of state (9)
I believe the answer is:
gorbachev
'old head of state' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'good or bad at the start? hurt very' is the wordplay.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'at the start?' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'at the start' mean this).
'hurt' becomes 'ache' (synonyms).
'very' becomes 'v' (abbreviation).
The first letter of 'bad' is 'b'.
'g'+'or'+'b'+'ache'+'v'='GORBACHEV'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for gorbachev that I've seen is " Famous Russian".)