When on September 20, 1999, the only first lady of the USSR Raisa Gorbacheva died in a clinic in Münster, they said goodbye to her major western newspapers. In them, Raisa Maksimovna, who died at the age of 67 due to leukemia, was called bright, beautiful, luxurious, straightforward, elegant.
Journalists agreed that that Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife played a crucial role in the end of the Cold War, showing the West a Soviet woman that he did not expect to see her – an equal partner of her husband, a counselor, a best friend, who at the same time could well compete in elegance with a Hollywood beauty Nancy Reagan .
Raisa Gorbacheva became a superstar of the perestroika era for the Western press due to the fact that she always accompanied her husband on foreign trips. On the day of her death, they recalled how she appeared at summits and receptions, sometimes at first violating protocol or making an unpleasant impression on the wife of Ronald Reagan , but always to be noticed.
Wife of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Raisa Gorbacheva (right) and wife of American President Nancy Reagan in the White House, 1987
Eduard Pesov / TASS
For the first time, Raisa Gorbacheva attracted the attention of Western journalists back in 1984, when her husband flew to Great Britain to meet with the Prime Minister of the country Margaret Thatcher even as a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee .
“Diplomats and reporters who scanned the couple looking for signs of a new generation of leaders quickly focused on her wardrobe – especially brocade sandals with chain fasteners, far from the old-fashioned shoes worn by other Kremlin wives, ”the newspaper later wrote The New York Times . She also quoted French journalists who later, after the Gorbachevs’ visit to France, called the Soviet first lady “elegant, but not chic.”
Secretary General CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev with his wife Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (center) during her official visit to the USSR, 1987
Yuri Abramochkin / RIA Novosti
The British The Guardian . “At those meetings, the Western media fell in love with Raisa,” the newspaper wrote after her death. “She dyed gray suits at protocol photo shoots, she destroyed the image of a Soviet woman as a stern aunt in a scarf with a figure of potatoes.”
According to British journalists, Raisa’s greatest triumph Maksimovna came to the summit in Reykjavik in 1986: then it was assumed that the spouses of the leaders of the USSR and the United States would not take part in this event, but Raisa Gorbacheva at the last moment decided to accompany her husband. (A year later, during a visit to Washington, she will tell Nancy Reagan: “I missed you in Reykjavik,” to which she will receive a cold: “I was told that women were not invited.”)
Meeting of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev with his wife Raisa Gorbacheva and Icelandic President Vigdis Finnbogadottir in the framework of the Soviet-American summit talks in Reykjavik, 1986
Yuri Abramochkin / RIA Novosti
That visit of Raisa Gorbacheva to the summit was covered by the entire Western Western press. course across Reykjavik in the company of the wife of Icelandic Prime Minister Edda Gudmundottir. As part of a city tour, she visited an outdoor pool heated by geysers, greeted the pool director in English, and then, going down to the water, shook hands with a girl in a pink bathing suit. In addition, the wife of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee visited the Institute of Icelandic Studies and Parliament, and also met with the schoolchildren who wrote the letter Mikhail Gorbachev expressing hope for a thaw in relations between the USSR and the West.
A crowd of journalists followed her everywhere, critically assessing her wardrobe and discussing why the Gorbachevs decided to stop on the ferry “ Georg Ots “and do not spend the night on the shore.
The New York Times wrote about that train to Reykjavik in October 1986 that Raisa Gorbacheva endlessly bombarded the guides with clarifying questions and edifying comments – the first lady also complained about her tendency to lecture in 1987 USA Nancy Reagan, who hosted the Gorbachevs in Washington.
However, over time, Raisa Maksimovna, as The Guardian put it, found her niche in foreign trips in the USA in 1990, when the first lady of the USSR already spoke with Barbara Bush , turned out to be warmer, and Raisa Gorbacheva, instead of shopping and museums, talked with the children and received from her wife George W. Bush blueberry pie recipe.
In June 1990, Raisa Maksimovna made a splash not at receptions – newspapers with admiration wrote about her visit to an ordinary American family in Minnesota.
“A typical American family with four children and a dog shared coconut cookies with Raisa Gorbacheva at the dinner table and called this moment “Too adorable” to be distracted by photographing, “the Associated Press reported. Then the head of the family, 39-year-old art teacher at elementary school Steve Watson, told reporters: “It exceeded all our expectations. We won’t be able to sleep for another week. ” “I think she’s wonderful,” said 13-year-old Lisa Watson, who had visited Moscow with her theater studio a year earlier.
The wife of the President of the USSR Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev Raisa Maksimovna during a meeting with the Watson family in Minneapolis, 1990
Vladimir Zavyalov / TASS
According to journalists, the house of an American family where Raisa Maksimovna an hour instead of the planned 20 minutes and discussed the budget and family eating habits, surrounded by about 6,000 reporters and onlookers.
She also went to the drugstore and Mexican diner that time, where she bought macadamia nuts and gum. She refused “Snickers”, although she asked about the composition of the bar – she referred to her diet.
She constantly accompanied her husband on trips and paid a lot of attention to outfits. The USSR did not understand that she was actually fulfilling an important, humanitarian role of the first lady – while her husband was negotiating to suspend the arms race, she showed the world the attractiveness of a Soviet woman, a Soviet man.
Spouse of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M.S. Gorbacheva Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva in front of the entrance to the National Gallery of Prague, 1987
Eduard Pesov / TASS
Sometimes it was not entirely successful – it is known with what irritation Nancy Reagan perceived Raisa Gorbacheva’s tendency to lecture in small talk. But she also took her travels around the world very seriously.
“She certainly prepared incredibly well for her travels. As a schoolgirl, as a teacher for the first lesson. I remember how, before visiting the Prado Museum in Spain, I studied all the catalogs, – told TASS writer Georgy Pryakhin, co-author of Raisa Gorbacheva’s book “I hope”. – Without coming close to the canvases, she already named the picture and the artist. And then she looked back at me: right, wrong? She believed that I, especially with glasses, know more than she does. In fact, I often didn’t know what she had learned from the catalogs the day before. ”
Spouse of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Raisa Gorbacheva (left) and the wife of the President of the United States Nancy Reagan (right) during the official visit of President of the United States Ronald Reagan to the USSR, 1988
Alexander Makarov / RIA Novosti
In the same interview, Georgy Pryakhin said that Raisa Maksimovna “perceived life as a mission.” She herself spoke about the same.
“There are people who are attracted, I know, the outer side of my life … For me, another thing is more important – involvement in those huge matters that have fallen to the lot of a person close to me, my husband … this is what I value, “she admitted in an interview.
The role of Raisa Gorbacheva – including at home, where she, in particular, became a co-founder of the Soviet Cultural Foundation, participated in the work of the board of the Fund “Help for the Children of Chernobyl”, supported the association “Hematologists of the World to Children” – they appreciated when she fell seriously ill. During her treatment at the Münster clinic in the summer of 1999, she began to receive thousands of letters and telegrams expressing support.
The wife of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva during wires at the airfield in Yugoslavia, 1988
Viktor Budan / TASS
Then Raisa Gorbacheva said: “Probably, I had to fall ill with such a serious illness and die for people to understand me.”
“A huge crowd of people came to see her off, among whom were the majority of women. Who especially disliked her before, “Georgiy Pryakhin will later recall.
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