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[Mikhail Gorbachev Background] c.11/90 [OA 8312] [1]
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[Mikhail Gorbachev Background] c.11/90 [OA 8312] [1]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Speech Backup Chronological Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
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S
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Backup Files
Subseries:
Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13740
Folder ID Number:
13740-006
Folder Title:
[Mikhail Gorbachev Background] c.11/90 [OA 8312] [1]
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26
21
1
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PAGE 2
4TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 U.S.News & World Report
March 25, 1985
SECTION: Washington Whispers; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 62 words
BODY: What did Vice President Bush talk about with world leaders during his visit
to Moscow or Chernenko's funeral? With Britain's Thatcher, it was her
impression of Gorbachev; with Japan's Nakasone, trade problems; with West
Germany's Kohl, the renewed arms talks; with India's Gandhi, his trip to the
United States in June, and with Pakistan's Zia, the war in Afghanistan.
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6TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 U.S. News & World Report
March 25, 1985
SECTION: Pg. 27
LENGTH: 574 words
HEADLINE: Prospects for a Thaw: Process Will Be Slow
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
The United States and the Soviet Union both regard the changeover in Kremlin
leadership as a chance for a fresh start in superpower relations.
But the hopes are tempered by the sober realization that differences between
the two nations are profound and intractable -- regardless of who is on top in
Moscow.
First cautious contact came here at a minisummit after the funeral of
Konstantin Chernenko. Vice President George Bush and Secretary of State
George Shultz got a chance to size up Mikhail Gorbachev, and the new Soviet
leader had an opportunity to assess the Americans.
Said Bush after the 85-minute session: ''If there ever was a time when we
can move forward with progress in the last few years, then I would say this is a
good time for that.
Shultz also was upbeat upon his return to Washington. ''The President, he
told reporters on March 15, 'firmly intends to work toward a more constructive
relationship across the board.
For his part, Gorbachev promised to ''work in practice to improve'' relations
with the United States. But he did not immediately accept President Reagan's bid
to hold the first U.S.-Soviet summit since 1979.
No one in Moscow or Washington expected, however, that a polite exchange of
words would clear the air after decades of mutual suspicion. ''We are not
euphoric,' Bush cautioned. 'There are big problems, major problems that we
have had, that we'll have to face.''
American officials realize that, even if Gorbachev favored significant
change, the realities of Soviet politics rule out any bold overtures while he
consolidates his position in the Politburo.
Any expectations of substantive progress in easing tensions are further
dampened by opposing positions at the nuclear-arms talks at Geneva, where
negotiators are SO far apart that it could take years to reach an agreement.
''It's not imminent.' Faced with a spate of optimistic press reports on the
prospects of a Reagan-Gorbachev meeting, Washington tried to dampen all the talk
of an early summit session. A senior White House aide warned: ''I wouldn't play
it up because it's not imminent, and it's not something that's going to take
place overnight. All but ruled out was a summit session in May when the
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(c) 1985 U.S. News & World Report, March 25, 1985
President visits Europe for the Western economic summit and V-E Day ceremonies.
Some analysts predict, nevertheless, that there could be such a meeting
before the end of the year, perhaps in Helsinki in August on the 10th
anniversary of the East-West human-rights accords or in New York when the United
Nations General Assembly convenes in September.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union may need a summit.
Gorbachev requires cooperation abroad to obtain essential goods and
technology that he requires if he is to revitalize sagging Soviet industry and
agriculture.
Thoughts about legacy. Reagan's Western European allies and the U.S. Congress
both want reductions in the deficits brought on in part by heavy arms spending.
In addition, aides observe that, as the President moves into his second and
last term in the White House, he is beginning to think about what he will leave
behind, 'his legacy.
With a robust leader now in the Kremlin and an American President who wants
to go down in history as a peacemaker, many observers believe circumstances are
favorable for a sustained U.S.-Soviet dialogue -- with no assurance, however,
that superpower detente or an arms agreement are in the cards.
GRAPHIC: Picture, Vice President Bush meets Gorbachev at U.S.-Soviet
minisummit in Moscow. DAVID VALDEZ -- THE WHITE HOUSE
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5
8TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 The Times Mirror Company;
Los Angeles Times
March 21, 1985, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: View; Part 5; Page 2; Column 1; View Desk
LENGTH: 588 words
HEADLINE: ART BUCHWALD: IS CAMELOT COMING TO THE KREMLIN?
BYLINE: By ART BUCHWALD
BODY:
The Soviet Watchers of Washington met last week in the Darkness at Noon
Russian Tea Room to be briefed on Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev's rise to the
top of the Soviet Union.
Prof. Nicholai Dubokowsky, one of the leading Kremlinologists in this
country, gave us the word. "Gorbachev may be around for at least 30 years, SO
you have to watch him very closely."
"What should we watch for?"
"Since he is only 54 years old you should watch the way he stands when he's
on the top of Lenin's Tomb. Remember, he is the first Soviet leader in 10 years
who can watch a parade without a Politburo member on each side holding on to his
arms 50 he won't fall down. This has its good and bad implications. The fact
that he can stand on his own two feet makes Gorbachev dangerous. At the same
time we can expect more credibility from the Kremlin on their leader's health.
Now when they announce he has a bad cold, WE can all assume he does have a bad
cold."
"Why is Gorbachev getting such a good press?"
"Because he speaks English and wears nice suits. One of the reasons Americans
never trusted the Soviet leaders in the past was that they dressed so tacky. How
could you discuss ways of avoiding World War III with people who wore baggy
pants and white socks? Gorbachev is a new breed of Russian. His suit coat fits,
and his choice of shirts and ties is impeccable. He's the type of person you're
not ashamed to be photographed with at a summit conference."
"Does the fact that he's a snappy dresser mean he's a more formidable
adversary?"
"He could go either way. Khrushchev almost brought us to nuclear destruction
by hammering his shoe on the podium at the United Nations. Gorbachev would never
do this because he's afraid it would ruin his shine. But you still have to watch
him very carefully. The fact that he doesn't drool all over the medals on his
chest could be to NATO's disadvantage. With the others you knew they weren't
going to be around very long, so the West was willing to put up with their
peccadilloes for a year or two. With Gorbachev it will be at least three decades
before he winds up in the Kremlin Wall."
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(c) 1985 Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1985
"Do you think he will flaunt the fact he is only 54 years old in Reagan's
face?"
"He has already. In a hand-delivered letter to President Reagan, Gorbachev
started by addressing it 'Dear Uncle Ronnie.' That threw the President for a
loop. He doesn't even like his grandchildren to call him Grandpa."
"Vice President George Bush watched Gorbachev all during Chernenko's
funeral. What was his impression of the man?"
"As you know, Mr. Bush has become an expert at watching Soviet leaders at
Moscow funerals. He came back quite impressed. Mr. Bush thinks Gorbachev has
the potential to become the first Soviet yuppie premier. The leader seems to
enjoy the good things in life, and one of his priorities is to provide more of
the same for his people. The vice president believes if we can get Gorbachev to
import more Perrier and buy more BMWs with stereo tape decks in them, the
Soviets will lose their appetite for world conquest."
"What about Mrs. Gorbachev? Should we spend much time watching her?"
"You have no choice. The press is now referring to her as another Jackie
Kennedy. Mrs. Gorbachev could be a big help to the Soviet leader when he travels
around the world. The thing to watch is his first trip to France. If he pulls a
John Kennedy and says, 'I am the man who accompanied Raisa Gorbachev to Paris,'
and it gets a big hand, we're in a lot more trouble than most people think."
TYPE:
Column; Wire
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16TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 The Washington Post
March 15, 1985, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: First Section; World News; A29
LENGTH: 758 words
HEADLINE: Gorbachev Impresses Dignitaries in Talks;
Choice of Callers, Change in Style Noted
BYLINE: By Celestine Bohlen, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: MOSCOW, March 14, 1985
BODY:
New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev completed another day of back-to-back
diplomatic meetings today, impressing a stream of foreign dignitaries with his
energy and self-confidence.
In his first days in office, Gorbachev already has met twice as many visiting
delegations as his predecessor, the late Konstantin Chernenko.
Gorbachev's meetings with foreign visitors here to attend Chernenko's
funeral yesterday revealed more about the style of the new Kremlin leadership
than about any change in policy, diplomats said.
But Gorbachev's selection of visitors was also revealing. Today he received a
delegation from China, a sign that he intends to follow up on his call Monday
for "serious improvement" in relations between the two Communist giants. Last
year, at the funeral of former president Yuri Andropov, the Chinese delegation
met not with Chernenko, the incoming leader, but with another member of the
Politburo.
Gorbachev also met today with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, the
first time that the two countries' top leaders have met since 1973 and only the
third time in Soviet history.
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Francois Mitterrand,
after their meetings with Gorbachev this week, reported that he had accepted
their invitations to visit their countries, although no dates were set.
But officials in Washington said Gorbachev did not commit himself in response
to a letter from President Reagan, delivered by Vice President Bush, that
reportedly invited him to a summit meeting there.
Bush said before leaving Moscow late last night, however, that he found
"nothing discouraging" in Gorbachev's reaction, and added that their 85-minute
meeting in the Kremlin gave him "high hope" for improved U.S.-Soviet relations.
Some western diplomats noted that Gorbachev met on the first day with
President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and with Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam
Mengistu. Last year, Ortega was given less favorable treatment and the
Ethiopians were not received at all.
1.
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(c) 1985 The Washington Post , March 15, 1985
However, the absence of Cuban President Fidel Castro was taken by some here
as a sign of Cuban dissatisfaction with Soviet aid to Nicaragua.
Western leaders emerging from their meetings with Gorbachev described him as
"firm," "frank," "calm" and possessing a "keen historical awareness."
"He talks very openly. He is a commanding, well-informed, strong man, with a
natural authority," Kohl said after their meeting today. "He has an easy charm
but, at the same time, can stand up for his interests firmly and coldly."
Few specifics about the meetings were revealed, but, according to western
diplomats, Gorbachev stuck closely to recent Soviet policy on international
issues. Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko was present at all the encounters.
Western diplomats said today that Gorbachev, in a joint meeting with leaders
of Eastern European countries, rescheduled a Warsaw Pact summit for April in
Sofia, Bulgaria. Such a summit was postponed earlier this year because of
Chernenka's poor health.
A plenum of the Central Committee is also still expected in April, which will
give the new Soviet leader a chance to exert his authority.
"It could be a busy April, but he has already shown he can handle a killing
schedule," one western diplomat said.
Among western-allied leaders, Gorbachev met today with Prime Ministers Felipe
Gonzalez of Spain and Brian Mulroney of Canada as well as Kohl and Nakasone.
At a short briefing after their meeting, Nakasone said the two had discussed
the continuing dispute over the Kurile Islands, which Moscow annexed from Japan
after World War II. According to Nakasone, Gorbachev said the Soviet stance on
the issue "is not to be changed." But Gorbachev raised hopes for a long-awaited
visit to Japan by Gromyko.
The U.S.-Soviet arms talks begun in Geneva this week were a recurrent theme
in Gorbachev's meetings with Western European leaders. Gorbachev apparently
reiterated the Soviet position that the top priority at the talks is to prevent
the spread of weaponry to space.
Gorbachev also met with Mohammed Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan, Babrak Karmal of
Afghanistan, Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Truong Chinh of Vietnam, Ali
Nasser Hasani of South Yemen and Samora Machel of Mozambique.
The Chernenko funeral also provided opportunities for bilateral meetings
between other government leaders. West Germany's Kohl met Tuesday night with
Erich Honecker of East Germany, and later with Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski of
Poland and President Gustav Husak of Czechoslovakia.
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9
17TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 Chicago Tribune Company;
Chicago Tribune
March 14, 1985, Thursday, FINAL
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 2; ZONE: C
LENGTH: 861 words
HEADLINE: DEATH THINS RANKS OF SOVIET OLD GUARD
BYLINE: By Howard A. Tyner, Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
The strains of Chopin's "Funeral March" drifted across Red Square yet again
Wednesday as the Soviet Union buried another of its leaders, this time President
Konstantin Chernenko.
It was the fifth major funeral here in slightly more than three years, and
it underscored how old age and death are imposing pivotal changes on the face of
Soviet politics.
Communist Party theorist Mikhail Suslov, Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri
Andropov, and Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, all 70 or older, have preceded
Chernenko to the grave since January, 1982. The five deaths left a deep gap in
the ranks of senior Kremlin veterans, whose careers date from the prewar
Stalinist era.
Only a few of the Old Guard remain, most notably Foreign Minister Andrei
Gromyko, 75; Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov, 79; and party secretary Boris
Ponamarev, 80.
On Wednesday the new generation was in charge on Red Square in the person of
Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, named the party's general secretary within hours after
Monday's announcement of Chernenko's death at 73. Perhaps as a sign of the new
realities, the 55-minute "funeral meeting" was a brisker, less sentimental
affair than ceremonies for Andropov last year or for Brezhnev in 1982.
Delivering his eulogy under a leaden late-winter sky, Gorbachev paid proper
respect to his predecessor, who was serving with Red Army frontier troops in
Soviet Central Asia when the new general secretary was born.
Chernenko, he said, was "a true son of our party and people, a steadfast
fighter for noble communist ideals, a prominent party and state figure."
That ritual done, Gorbachev spelled out what he apparently intends to be the
hallmarks of his reign: "strict observance of law and order, consolidation of
labor, state and party discipline."
"We will support, encourage and elevate in all ways those who by deeds and
practical results rather than by words show their honest and conscientious
attitude towards civic duty," he told a radio and television audience and the
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(c) 1985 Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1985
several thousand people gathered on the cobblestones of the huge square.
"We shall fight any manifestation of showiness and idle talk, swagger and
irresponsibility--everything that contradicts the socialist norms of life."
Few Muscovites could have missed the similarities between the tone of
Gorbachev's message and the no-nonsense style of the 15 months in which
Andropov, the veteran chief of the KGB security police, held power. Andropov was
Gorbachey's patron, and many observers, Soviet and Western, believe the younger
man will pursue a course similar to that of his mentor.
As Gorbachev spoke in a clear, confident voice, it was easy to recall
Andropov's funeral 13 months ago and the gasping, halting delivery of the eulogy
read by Chernenko. That was the first clear signal to the public that the
longtime Brezhnev protege could serve only a short time before giving way to the
younger generation.
The ceremonies Wednesday began shortly before 1 p.m., when the body of
Chernenko, who died Sunday of heart failure complicated by chronic heart and
liver ailments, was brought into Red Square in a coffin draped in red and black
crepe aboard a gun carriage.
Already assembled in the square were world leaders from East and West, among
them Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, French
President Francois Mitterrand, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Indian
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
In keeping with the practice here, Chernenko's casket was placed at the foot
of the Lenin mausoleum and then opened so that the body, clad in a dark suit,
faced the squat red-granite bunker holding the mummified remains of the man who
founded the Soviet Union 67 years ago.
Looking down at him from atop the mausoleum was Gorbachev, flanked by
Tikhonov, Moscow party leader Viktor Grishin and other Kremlin officials. Each
wore a band of red and black on his left upper arm.
Once Gorbachev had finished his address, Grishin spoke, followed by a worker
from the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, where Chernenko was born into a peasant
family Sept. 11, 1924.
Chernenko's grave is at one end of a row containing the final resting places
of 11 other heroes of Soviet history, including Josef Stalin, Suslov, Andropov,
Brezhnev and Felix Dzherzhinsky, founder of the secret police. Chernenko lies
next to Marshal Semen Budenny, a veteran of the 1917-20 civil war.
Once the body had reached the grave, Chernenko's widow, Anna, in keeping
with Russian Orthodox tradition, bent over her husband's body, touched his brow
and kissed him on the forehead.
As at the funerals of Brezhnev and Andropov, the leaders made the same
farewell gesture, but they broke tradition when none stepped forward to follow
the dead president's wife.
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(c) 1985 Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1985
An artillery salute boomed and factory sirens blared across the nation
precisely at 1:40 p.m., when the casket was lowered into the ground. Then came
the playing of the national anthem.
A 10-minute march in review by elite troops ended the funeral of
Konstantin Chernenko.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: (color) AP Laserphoto. The coffin of Soviet President
Konstantin Chernenko is borne through Red Square Wednesday.
TERMS: SOVIET UNION; GROUP; OFFICIAL; END
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18TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 Chicago Tribune Company;
Chicago Tribune
March 14, 1985, Thursday, FINAL
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1; ZONE: C
LENGTH: 1026 words
HEADLINE: BUSH, GORBACHEV TALK
BYLINE: By Howard A. Tyner, Chicago Tribune. (Tribune correspondent George de
Lama contributed to this story from Washington.)
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
Vice President George Bush had what he called a "constructive,
nonpolemical" meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev late Wednesday, but the new Soviet
leader apparently did not commit himself to a summit meeting with President
Reagan.
But Bush said that Reagan was willing to sit down with Gorbachev and that
"he'd be ready as soon as the Soviet leadership would be."
The vice president made his report after spending 1 hour and 25 minutes in
the Kremlin with Gorbachev. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign
Minister Andrei Gromyko also sat in on the session, which followed the funeral
of Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko.
White House officials had said Bush would deliver a message from Reagan
inviting Gorbachev to a summit meeting and that Washington was suggesting it be
held in the United States.
Bush refused to confirm that, although he said he had brought a letter. "I
believe that the President does feel a meeting would be useful," he said. Asked
what Gorbachev said about a summit, Bush replied: "I really honestly can't
answer that
I just couldn't tell you anything about that."
A senior U.S. official in Washington said any summit meeting should be in
the United States or in a "neutral" country. There has not been such a meeting
in the U.S. since Presidents Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev met in 1974.
Since then there have been two summits in the Soviet Union and one each in
Finland and Austria.
"The President would prefer not to go to Moscow," the official said. "But in
general, we would not be very hung up on where the meeting is held."
Reagan's invitation came about in part because of his growing sensitivity to
being the first president since Herbert Hoover not to meet with his Soviet
counterpart, White House officials said.
"The President is thinking about his legacy, about how his presidency will
go down in the history books," one official said. "He sincerely wants to reach
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(c) 1985 Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1985
an arms-control accord with the Russians."
Gorbachev, 54, was named general secretary of Soviet Communist Party on
Monday, the day after Chernenko's death. Reagan had not met with Chernenko or
his predecessor, Yuri Andropoy, in part because they were 111 during much of
their time in office.
In addition, during Reagan's first term the U.S. insisted a summit had to
offer the prospect of positive results before it could be held. That condition
seems to have been dropped in the recent White House comments, which apparently
were provoked by the conciliatory attitude toward the U.S. in Gorbachev's
acceptance speech after becoming general secretary. On Monday, Reagan said he
was looking forward to meeting "whenever we can" with Gorbachev.
This was the third time since November, 1982, that Bush has come to Moscow
to represent the U.S. at the funeral of a Soviet leader. Each time he has been
received by the new man in charge.
He spoke Wednesday night with cautious optimism about the possibility of an
improvement in Soviet-American relations, saying, "If there ever was a time when
we can move forward with progress in the last few years, I'd say this was a good
time."
Bush said he was not "euphoric" but rather realistic about the state of
affairs. "We encountered nothing there to discourage us in any way from these
feelings that I think are high: high on hope, high that we can make
progress" in nuclear-arms negotiations in Geneva and "high for an overall
reduction of tensions."
Bush acknowledged "big problems, major differences" that would remain
between Moscow and Washington. But he said the climate of the session with
Gorbachev was such "that we feel this is a good time to move forward. I hope
that we adequately conveyed our President's views on that."
Reagan had lunch Wednesday with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,
who was in Nixon's Cabinet and who is an unofficial adviser to the current
administration. Kissinger said afterward that Reagan and Gorbachev should meet
"in due course" but that the U.S. should be cautious in weighing the meaning of
the change in Soviet leadership.
Kissinger warned that Gorbachey's relative youth and vigor, which have been
seen as hopeful factors in the West, do not necessarily bode well for East-West
relations.
"We have a tendency to look at these Soviet leaders as if this were a
personality contest," Kissinger told reporters. "The first thing one has to
remember is that you don't get to the head of the Politburo by being a
choirboy."
Kissinger urged that Reagan not rush into a summit unless Moscow showed a
firm commitment to improve its relations with the U.S., such as demonstrable
progress on arms reductions.
"A summit 15 not an end of itself," he said. "What is an end is the result
of a summit. I don't think foreign policy is a psychiatric exercise. I don't
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(c) 1985 Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1985
think it's so important to meet each other as it is important to have an agenda
to talk about."
Kissinger, who played an inportant role in the Nixon-Brezhney summits, said
he agreed with the assessment that Reagan wants to go down in history as a
peacemaker.
"My impression is that (Reagan) is above all concerned about bringing about
a fundamental change in international tensions," Kissinger said, "and that will
determine the speed of a summit, the prospects for success."
The U.S. delegation was one of dozens Gorbachev met with after Chernenko's
funeral in Red Sqaure early Wednesday afternoon. The schedule fell so far
behind that when the Americans first drove to the Kremlin at the appointed hour
they were told to leave. So Bush and Shultz returned to the U.S. ambassador's
residence and waited more than 1 1/2 hours before being told to make the trip
again.
Bush said Gorbachev made "a very strong impression" and conducted their
long session "with great confidence and assurance." Gromyko participated in the
talks, he said, but left the lead to the new party leader. Chernenko often had
relied heavily on Gromyko in meetings with foreign dignitaries.
Bush left Moscow to attend the inauguration of Brazil's new president
Friday. Shultz headed back to Washington to brief Reagan.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: AP Laserphoto. Vice President George Bush offers his
condolences to the Soviet Union's new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, following
funeral services Wednesday in Moscow for Konstantin Chernenko.
TERMS: SOVIET UNION; RELATION; UNITED STATES
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20TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 The Times Mirror Company;
Los Angeles Times
March 14, 1985, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part 1; Page 1; Column 5; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 1005 words
HEADLINE: SOVIETS: BUSH ENCOURAGED BY GORBACHEV TALK
BYLINE: By WILLIAM J. EATON, Times Staff Writer
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
Vice President George Bush met for 85 minutes Wednesday with new Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and said afterward, "I think we have reason to be
encouraged."
He also indicated that he had told Gorbachev that President Reagan is ready
for a superpower summit conference whenever the Kremlin wants one. The vice
president strongly implied that he had delivered an invitation from Reagan to
Gorbachev during the discussion, which was held late Wednesday night after the
funeral of Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko.
"The President does feel a (summit) meeting would be useful," Bush said at
a news conference when asked if Reagan had invited Gorbachev to Washington. He
declined to give a direct answer to the question, although White House officials
had said late Tuesday that the mesage Bush was to deliver would suggest a
summit in the United States.
Bush also said he could not report anything about whether Gorbachev is
ready for a face-to-face encounter with the American President.
'Good Time to Move'
"The climate is such that WE feel this is a good time to move forward,"
Bush said. "I cannot speak for him (Reagan), but I think he would be ready
(for a summit meeting) as soon as the Soviet leadership will be."
The vice president, who was joined by Secretary of State George P. Shultz for
the meeting with Gorbachev and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, gave
an upbeat appraisal of the discussion.
"We're not euphoric," Bush said, noting that major problems and differences
exist between Washington and Moscow. "But we encountered nothing (at the
meeting) to discourage us in any way.'
As a result, he added, U.S. officials have high hopes for progress at nuclear
arms control talks in Geneva and for an overall reduction in Soviet-American
tensions.
Kissinger Cautions
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In Washington, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, after
having a private lunch with Reagan at the White House, told reporters that
Americans make a mistake by viewing a Soviet leadership change as "a personality
contest."
"The first thing one has to remember is that you don't get to the head of the
Politburo necessarily by being a choirboy," he said. "You have to be a pretty
strong and tough individual."
Kissinger said he opposes the concept of a "get-acquainted" summit meeting
between Reagan and Gorbachev, and indicated that the President agrees with him.
"I don't think foreign policy is a psychiatric exercise," he said.
However, the former secretary of state predicted that there will be a
Reagan-Gorbachev summit "in due course."
"We have an unusual opportunity," Kissinger said, "if the Soviets realize
that the way things have been going they can't continue, as the President has
made emphatically clear." He said Reagan "above all is interested in bringing
about a fundamental change in international tensions."
Bush, who previously attended the Red Square funerals of Presidents Yuri V.
Andropov and Leonid I. Brezhnev, spoke along much the same lines, saying he
believes that there is more opportunity now to make progress in Soviet-American
relations than there has been in the last few years.
"The frankness and the content of the meeting (with Gorbachev) were such that
I think WE have reason to be encouraged," he said.
Bush was asked if Reagan's advocacy of research on space-based defenses
against nuclear missiles, nicknamed "Star Wars," would block progress because of
the Kremlin's strong condemnation of it. "We don't feel from the overall
conversation that anything is an insuperable barrier," he replied.
'Strong Impression'
As for Gorbachev himself, Bush described him as a man of confident
self-assurance, adding, "He made a very strong impression."
Gorbachev has moved quickly to establish himself as an active leader
following months of inactivity by his ailing predecessor.
Gorbachev, the 54-year-old successor to the Kremlin leadership, presided over
the Red Square funeral for Chernenko, whose 13-month tenure was plagued by
illness before he died last Sunday at the age of 73.
"We reaffirm once again our readiness to maintain good neighborly relations
with all countries on the principles of peaceful coexistence, on the basis of
equality and mutually advantageous cooperation," Gorbachev said in his funeral
oration.
"The Soviet Union has never threatened anyone," he said. "But no one will
ever be able to dictate his will to us.
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"Socialism, as Lenin thought, will prove its advantages, but it will prove
them not by force of arms but by force of example in all fields of society's
life -- economic, political and moral."
Thatcher Optimistic
Gorbachev also met with dozens of other foreign leaders who flew to Moscow
for the funeral and a first-hand look at the new leader, who is the ruling
Politburo's youngest member.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who spent 55 minutes with him, said
afterward, "I believe from my talks with him that the Geneva negotiations should
result in success."
French President Francois Mitterrand described Gorbachev as "audacious" and
added: "He's a calm man who has an open mind and showed the will to tackle
problems firmly." However, the French leader cautioned that it would be a
mistake to believe that the coming to power of Gorbachev alone could produce
major changes in Soviet policies.
Armored Vehicle
Chernenko, the seventh leader of the Soviet Union, was buried near the
Kremlin wall after his coffin was towed by an armored vehicle through Red
Square.
Scores of portraits of Chernenko, each trimmed with red-and-black mourning
bands, were held aloft by spectators. His widow, Anna, other family members and
friends walked behind the gun carriage bearing his body while a military band
played Chopin's funeral march.
As the coffin was lowered into the grave, artillery boomed and factory
whistles sounded in a final salute to Chernenko, the third Kremlin leader to die
in the last 28 months.
Times reporter George Skelton in Washington contributed to this story.
GRAPHIC: Photo, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev greets Vice President Bush
at start of their 85-minute meeting. UPI/Reuters; Photo, Dignataries -- Foreign
leaders, including British Prime Minister Thatcher and French President
Mitterrand, far right, observe funeral for Konstantin Chernenko. Associated
Press
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24TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
March 14, 1985, Thursday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 1, Column 1; Metropolitan Desk
LENGTH: 892 words
HEADLINE: NEWS SUMMARY;
BODY:
THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1985 International
A Bush -Gorbachev meeting in Moscow that lasted 85 minutes prompted the Vice
President to say he believed 'we can move forward with progress. The official
Soviet press agency Tass said that Mr. Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader, had
affirmed his readiness ''to work in practice'' to improve relations with the
United States. (Page A1, Col. 6.)
Chopin's funeral march echoed across Red Square as Konstantin U. Chernenko was
buried in the Kremlin. The ceremony was rich in pomp and Russian circumstance.
(A1:4-5.)
The President conveyed two views on Soviet-American relations to his senior
aides early Monday. The first was that Mr. Reagan was reluctant to fly to Mos cow
for the funeral of Mr. Chernenko, partly because of the White House schedule
and partly because the quick trip might be construed, according to an aide, as
'grandstanding'' and ''gimmicky.' Mr. Reagan's second opinion, an official
said, was that he 'wanted something other than a bland letter'' to be presented
to Mr. Gorbachev. (A1:3.)
Christian militia leaders rebelled against Lebanon's President, a Maronite
Catholic who is their ostensible leader. The uprising against President Amin
Gemayel posed a new threat to the stability of the Government and added another
element to the spiral of violent disintegration in the war-ravaged country.
(A1:2.) National
Senate budget makers approved, on a party-line vote, a deficit-reduction package
that would sharply reduce military spending, eliminate for one year the
cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients and cut or eliminate
many of the domestic programs targeted by President Reagan. The package, which
includes no tax increases, would cut $55.1 billion from the deficit in 1986 and
$296.7 billion over three years. (A1:1.)
Many women with breast cancer in its early stages can be treated just as well by
small-scale surgery that does little to disfigure the breast rather than by
removal of the breast, a major new study indicates. The researchers, who
cautioned that the results were not conclusive, called the small-scale surgery
appropriate to treating tumors an inch and a half or less in diameter. (A1:4-6.)
An 1885 letter by Mark Twain details his offer to provide financial aid to one
of the first black students at Yale Law School and contains language suggesting
that Twain was vigorously opposed to racism. The recently authenticated letter,
written in the year that ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' was published,
11
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is almost certain to become part of the long debate over whether the book or its
author were racist. (A1:1-3.)
A cleanup of Bikini Atoll, which is contaminated by radioactivity from 23
American nuclear bomb tests, won support from the Administration. The accord was
part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the people of Bikini, who were
evacuated from the islands in 1946 for the tests. (A12:1-2.)
Rice University chose a theologian as its new president. He is George Erik Rupp,
dean of the Harvard Divinity School, and he is the first nonscientist to lead
Rice, which is widely regarded as the most academically select college in the
Southwest. (A17:1.)
A plan to halt airline subsidies for service to scores of small municipalities
is opposed by civic and business leaders across the nation's rural center. They
say the Reagan Administration's proposal to eliminate $50 million a year in the
subsidies would further isolate them. (D27:1-2.) Metropolitan
The new evidence that prompted a new grand jury inquiry into the Bernhard H.
Goetz case is based on information provided by a new witness, according to
Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney. Investigators said the
witness had been a subway passenger who did not testify before the first panel
that investigated Mr. Goetz's Dec. 22 shooting of four teen-agers. (B3:5-6.)
Lilco is responsible for $1.2 billion of the cost overrun on the $4.2 billion
Shoreham nuclear power plant, according to two administrative law judges of the
New York State Public Service Commission. Therefore, they ruled, the $1.2
billion should be paid by the utility's stockholders, not its customers.
(B2:1-4.)
Higher levels of PCB contaminants than are regarded as safe for eating under
Federal standards have been found in striped bass in New York Harbor and off
Long Island, according to a state survey. (B2:5-6.)
Board of Election employees charged with supervising the printing of ballots
last fall showed an 'almost embarrassing lack of understanding'' of their jobs,
a New York City investigation concluded. (B4:4.)
Stiff curbs on smoking on the job are being imposed by many companies. They are
spurred by a growing number of local laws requiring nonsmoking sections at work
and in restaurants. Many employers are also seeking to trim health insurance and
labor costs while increasing productivity and avoiding costly lawsuits by
nonsmokers. (B1:5-6.)
Dr. Harry D. Gideonse died in a Long Island nursing home at the age of 83. Dr.
Gideonse was an educator, economist and the president of Brooklyn College from
1939 to 1966. (D27:1-2.) Page D1
TYPE: Summary
SUBJECT: Terms not available
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33RD STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1985 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
March 12, 1985, Tuesday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section À; Page 1, Column 5; National Desk
LENGTH: 865 words
HEADLINE: CHERNENKO IS DEAD IN MOSCOW AT 73; GORBACHEV SUCCEEDS HIM AND URGES
ARMS CONTROL AND ECONOMIC VIGOR;
BUSH SENT TO RITES
BYLINE: By BERNARD WEINRAUB, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, March 11
BODY:
President Reagan decided today against attending the funeral of Konstantin
U. Chernenko, but he said he was ''more than ready'' to meet the new Soviet
leadership.
White House officials said Vice President Bush, who is in Geneva after a
visit to drought-stricken African nations, would lead the American delegation to
Mr. Chernenko's funeral in Moscow on Wednesday.
Mr. Bush also represented the United States at the funerals of Leonid I.
Brezhnev in 1982 and Yuri V. Andropov in 1984. He is to be joined by Secretary
of State George P. Shultz and the United States Ambassador to Moscow, Arthur A.
Hartman.
'Looking Forward' to Meeting
Mr. Reagan, in his first public comments after Mr. Chernenko's death, said he
was ''looking forward'' to meeting the new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
But the President voiced doubt that Soviet policies would change in any
substantive way as a result of the selection of Mr. Gorbachev.
White House officials indicated that Mr. Reagan had seriously considered
flying to Moscow for the funeral to underscore American resolve to improve
relations. But after a morning meeting with leading aides, Mr. Reagan decided
against the trip, largely because he felt little would be accomplished by a
brief visit.
'I Started Thinking About It'
As of 4 A.M. this morning I started thinking about it after the first call
came, Mr. Reagan told a group of editors and broadcasters at the White House
this afternoon. He had been awakened by his national security adviser, Robert C.
McFarlane, with a report indicating that the Soviet leader had died.
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"I had a feeling there's - first of all, there's an awful lot on my plate
right now that would have to be set aside, Mr. Reagan said. "I didn't think
that anything could be achieved by going.
'An Open Mind'
''I've sent my condolences to the Soviet leadership and people,' Mr. Reagan
told the group. ' ' I want them to know that we will deal with Chairman
Chernenko's successor with an open mind and will continue our efforts to improve
relations between our two nations, to settle our differences fairly, and
particularly, to lower the levels of nuclear arms.'
Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush would carry a
private letter from Mr. Reagan to Mr. Gorbachev. Earlier today Mr. Reagan sent a
condolence message to the acting head of state, Vasily V. Kuznetsov, urging the
United States and the Soviet Union to ''seize the opportunities for peace'' as
they start arms negotiations Tuesday in Geneva.
''At this solemn time,' Mr. Reagan said in his message, ''I wish to
reiterate the strong desire of the American people for world peace. Although the
problems which divide our countries are many and complex, we can and must
resolve our differences through dialogue and negotiation.'
Other Commitments Cited
Mr. Reagan, explaining how other business would have had to be set aside if
he had decided to go to Moscow, cited the visit Tuesday of the Egyptian
President, Hosni Mubarak, as well as his meeting next Sunday and Monday with the
Canadian Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, in Quebec City.
Mr. Reagan also noted that Mr. Bush was already in Geneva delivering a
speech, so ''it would seem very logical for him to do it.''
White House officials also cited the the Soviet Union's desire for small
delegations at the funeral, as well as the logistical problems in arranging a
trip on short notice.
Beyond this, one White House official said Mr. Reagan was reluctant ''to make
a quick hit'' in Moscow and then depart in a visit that would be viewed as more
symbolic than substantive.
'Reagan has always said that he wanted to have a meeting with them that was
planned, where there were people in place and an agenda to talk about, the
official said. ''This wasn't it.''
Nonetheless Mr. Reagan, as well as his staff, went to some lengths today to
emphasize the President's strong interest in meeting the new Soviet leadership,
especially at a time when both nations are about to engage in talks aimed at
limiting nuclear weapons.
'Legitimate Agenda' Sought
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Asked if he was ''anxious'' to meet the new Soviet leader, Mr. Reagan
responded: ''Very much SO. And I was with the previous three also.'' Mr. Reagan
said he wanted a summit to include ''a legitimate agenda and not just have a
meeting to get acquainted.
''You have to wait for a new man now to get in place and establish his
regime, and then I'll be more than ready,'' said Mr. Reagan.
''I'd like to have a talk and 582 if some way WE can't some day have a
,
meeting of minds, he added.
Mr. Reagan, in his comments to the editors and broadcasters after a luncheon
in the State Dining Room, said he foresaw little shift in Soviet policy.
That policy, he said, ''is really determined by a dozen or so individuals in
the Politburo.'
''They are the ones who chose him,'' he added. ''It is a collective
Government. And while an individual, once chosen by them, can undoubtedly
influence or persuade them certain things that might be particular theories or
policies of his, the Government basically remains the same group of
individuals.'
GRAPHIC: photo of Presient Reagan (page A17)
SUBJECT: DEATHS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
NAME: REAGAN, RONALD WILSON (PRES); CHERNENKO, KONSTANTIN U; BUSH, GEORGE
(VICE PRES); HARTMAN, ARTHUR A (AMB); SHULTZ, GEORGE PRATT (SEC); WEINRAUB,
BERNARD
GEOGRAPHIC: UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
0
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TIME/DECEMBER 21; 1987
The Spirit
Of Washington
With big smiles and some frustrations, détente makes a comeback
16
throughs on arms control-the thorny is-
sue of Star Wars was set aside for another
day-and there were heated exchanges
on human rights, the exalted pronounce-
ments uttered in the afterglow were more
than mere hyperbole. Something extraor-
dinary was taking place: four decades of
often truculent cold-war rhetoric were
giving way to dispassionate discourse and
high-level rapport. Neither side was for-
getting the vast ideological chasm that
separates the superpowers, but they were
learning to work around their differences,
to stake out common ground on which to
build a better understanding.
he centerpiece of the summit was
T
the ceremonial signing of an inter-
mediate-range nuclear forces trea-
ty that eliminated an entire class
of atomic weapons from Europe and the
rest of the world. The product of six years
of negotiation, the pact calls for the de-
struction of 1,752 Soviet and 859 Ameri-
can missiles and establishes rigorous on-
site verification procedures that pave the
way for more ambitious agreements in the
Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START)
regarding longer-range weapons.
On that score, the negotiating teams
were able to work out some new details
concerning their goal of a 50% cut in stra-
tegic arms. By agreeing to set aside the is-
sue of exactly how the 1972 Antiballistic
Missile Treaty would restrict the develop-
ment of Reagan's proposed Strategic De-
fense Initiative, the two sides showed a
willingness-at least for the moment-to
make that dispute less of an obstacle to a
START treaty. Such an agreement, if the
SDI issue can continue to be finessed, is ex-
pected to form the basis for a fourth sum-
mit in Moscow late next spring.
Reagan saw the Washington summit
as a vindication of his hard-line policies of
the past seven years. By seeking to roll
back Communist influence and reduce,
rather than merely limit, the number of
nuclear weapons on both sides, Reagan
believes he has repudiated the flawed pol-
icies of his predecessors. Many of the
claims he made in his televised speech
Thursday night were overstated: the INF
treaty is not the first to require reductions
in the number of nuclear weapons (SALT II
provided for limited cuts), the summit did
It will be remembered as the
Oval Office for a critical hour-long bar-
not represent a victory for his SDI pro-
summit at which intimacy
gaining session on ways to reduce their
gram, and he was not able to make hu-
and symbolism overshad-
bloated arsenals of strategic weapons.
man rights or regional issues anything
owed disputes about sub-
Gorbachev's dazzling visit to Wash-
more than a sideshow to the business of
stance, and its spirit was cap-
ington for the summit of 1987 seemed to
arms control.
tured during a private
herald a new and more personable ball
In fact, though the President would
moment between Mikhail Gorbachev and
game in the 40-year struggle between the
wince at the thought, the summit was not
Ronald Reagan on the morning after they
U.S. and the U.S.S.R. At center stage
so much a triumph of a Reagan revolution
signed their historic arms accord. The
stood the leaders of the world's two most
in foreign policy as it was a return of
President led the Soviet leader to a little
powerful nations, smiling warmly, shak-
the principles of détente: a reduction
study next to the Oval Office and pro-
ing hands, exchanging pens, trading one-
of tensions between the two superpowers
duced a baseball that Joe DiMaggio had
liners. The Soviet visitor even burst into
and a recognition that arms control is
hoped to have autographed by Gorbachev
song at one point. When it was all over,
the focal point of relations between
at the state dinner the night before. Rea-
Gorbachev called the three-day Washing-
the two countries. During the long and
gan was not just fulfilling the old Yankee
ton summit a "major event in world poli-
twisted walk up to the summit, Fritz
slugger's request. He had a metaphor in
tics," while Reagan grandiloquently de-
Ermarth, the chief Soviet expert on
mind. Are we, he asked, going to play
clared that the meeting had "lit the sky
the National Security Council, cracked,
ball? Yes, Gorbachev firmly agreed. Then
with hope for all people of goodwill."
"Détente is dirty work, but somebody's
the two men rejoined their top aides in the
Even though there were no break-
got to do it." Last week Reagan and Gor-
TIME. DECEMBER 21, 1987
Photograph for TIME by Diana Walker
17
Gorbaphoria reached a crescendo when the summit superstar stopped his motorcade for some impromptu flesh pressing. Exulted one pedestrian:
bachev made it seem like good clean fun.
laughter again. Said Gorbachev just be-
by. Gushed one thrilled bystander: "It
Although the meager results on sub-
fore his final departure: "I think we trust
was like the coming of the second Messi-
stantive issues hardly justified the excite-
each other more."
ah or something." Now that's public
ment and euphoria that surrounded last
Gorbachev had another interlocutor:
relations.
week's summit, what really mattered—
the American people. From his Monday
The Soviet leader invited several
and captured the public imagination-
afternoon arrival at Washington's An-
groups of influential Americans to the
was the personal accord and the images of
drews Air Force Base to his rainy Thurs-
Soviet embassy to push his case for arms
friendliness that pervaded the event. In
day night departure, the General Secre-
reductions, world peace and his internal
diplomacy, especially in the age of televi-
tary seemed to be leading a full-court
reforms. By far the most important of
sion, the perception that tensions have
media blitz. He unfailingly turned on the
these meetings was with nine congressio-
been reduced tends to mean that tensions
charm in his public appearances, such as
nal leaders, including four of the Senators
have in fact been reduced. What hap-
Tuesday night's state dinner at the White
who will ultimately decide whether to
pened in Washington last week is that the
House, where he and Wife Raisa joined
ratify the INF treaty. Most of the legisla-
perceptions changed measurably-and
Pianist Van Cliburn in singing Moscow
tors came out of the 90-minute meeting
for the better-on both sides. This was
Nights. Later in the week he stopped his
impressed by Gorbachev's intelligence,
true for the delighted Washington by-
motorcade on Connecticut Avenue to
candor and optimism. But many of them
standers who had their hands pumped by
hop out and press the flesh with passers-
let the General Secretary know that some
Gorbachev; it was true for the
positive Soviet actions were
fur-hatted Muscovites who
necessary to improve relations.
huddled under a giant TV
Senate Majority Leader Robert
screen on Kalinin Prospect to
Gorbachev and God
Byrd, a West Virginia Demo-
watch their leader's pomp-
crat, noted that a timetable for
filled arrival ceremony at the
"Every flirtation with God," Lenin once said, "is unutterable vile-
Soviet withdrawal from Af-
White House; and it was true,
ness." So what was Gorbachev flirting with at his arrival ceremony
ghanistan "would help" win
above all, for the two men who
when he muttered "May God help us" to George Shultz? Not much,
Senate ratification for INF. Sen-
faced each other across the ne-
at first blush. The expression is colloquial Russian and has no more
ate Democratic Whip Alan
gotiating table.
religious content than an American's "Thank heaven." Yet Gorba-
Cranston of California asked
This time the two men
chev uses such phrases so frequently (one in his 1985 TIME inter-
what could be done to speed
seemed to hit it off personally
view was deleted when reprinted in the Soviet Union) that some
the START talks along. "You
from the first handshake to the
have wondered if he is a closet Christian. He has told Soviet towns-
know what needs doing," re-
last. In some of their public ap-
pearances, they traded quips
folk that young people need to get off alcohol and "back to church."
plied Gorbachev. He pointed
out that the Soviet Union was
like a well-rehearsed vaudeville
In his interview with Tom Brokaw, he made a point of mentioning
now sending out "good vibes"
team. At the White House trea-
next year's celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in
and added, "We need good
ty-signing ceremony, for exam-
Russia. Larry Speakes, the former White House spokesman, says in
vibes from you."
ple, Reagan repeated the Rus-
a forthcoming book that Gorbachev confided to Reagan in Geneva
Gorbachev later held sepa-
sian phrase doveryai no
that he personally "might believe in God." Gorbachev's mother is a
rate meetings with intellectual
proveryai (trust but verify), only
churchgoing Russian Orthodox.
and cultural leaders (including
to be interrupted by Gorba-
Gorbachev, however, is in fact a devout atheist. "I was taken to
such luminaries as former Sec-
chev's good-natured observa-
church as a child," he said during a 1984 talk in Britain, "but I never
retary of State Henry Kissinger,
tion, "You repeat that at every
felt the least desire to go back." In a 1986 speech in Tashkent, he
Writer Norman Mailer and
meeting." When the laughter of
called for a "firm and uncompromising struggle against religious
Composer Yoko Ono), media
the 250 assembled guests died
moguls and business executives.
down, Reagan flashed his off-
phenomena." And despite the carefully restricted official latitude
At times during these sessions,
center grin, gave Gorbachev a
enjoyed by the Russian Orthodox Church, many Christian groups in
he seemed almost Reaganesque
little bow and replied, "I like
the Soviet Union still face official harassment.
in his use of folksy anecdotes to
it." The audience exploded with
make his points. He began his
18
TIME, DECEMBER 21, 1987
structed the reporters, like a scolding
1972 ABM treaty. The Reagan Adminis-
schoolmaster, to "think over this part of
tration, under its much disputed "broad"
my talk." The outburst, like his brusque
interpretation of that treaty, insists that
answers to most of the questions that fol-
more advanced research and certain
lowed, revealed that glasnost has definite
types of tests in space are permitted. In
limits.
addition, the Soviets seek a guarantee that
Reagan, meanwhile, showed his own
neither side will withdraw from the ABM
hard-line side in a postsummit address.
treaty to deploy a space-based antimissile
Having kept a relatively low profile dur-
system for at least ten years. Dealing with
ing most of the visit, he went on national
that impasse was the job of the working
television only two minutes after Gorba-
group that was set up on Tuesday under
chev's blue-and-white Ilyushin II-62 had
Paul Nitze, the President's chief arms-
roared off into rainy black skies. Speaking
control adviser, and Marshal Sergei Akh-
from the Oval Office, Reagan called the
romeyev, the Soviet armed forces chief of
talks a "clear success," giving cause for
staff.
"both hope and optimism." But his speech
included many declarations of his funda-
eagan outlined his position on SDI
mental opposition to Soviet policies and
R
during his Wednesday-morning
philosophy. To some extent, Reagan was
meeting with Gorbachev in the
merely reverting to old familiar themes
Oval Office. "We are going for-
out of habit. But with an eye to the ratifi-
ward with the research and development
cation process, he was also shoring up his
necessary to see if this is a workable con-
right flank against charges by increasing-
cept," said the President, "and if it is, we
ly jumpy conservatives that he has gone
are going to deploy it." Gorbachev lis-
soft on the Soviets.
tened intently, looking Reagan hard in
Reagan's desire not to stray too far
the eyes as he spoke. When Reagan fin-
ian:
"It was like the coming of the second Messiah"
from his conservative base also probably
ished, the Soviet leader replied: "Mr.
accounted for some of his caution in deal-
President, do what you think you have to
meeting with the intellectuals, for exam-
ing with arms control at the summit. As
do. And if in the end you think you have
ple, by reading a letter from an American
he has pursued his visions of disarmament
a system you want to deploy, go ahead
teenager calling on the two leaders "to
through strength, many Republican strat-
and deploy. Who am I to tell you what to
build a world of responsibility."
egists-notably Richard Nixon and Hen-
do? I think you're wasting money. I don't
Gorbachev showed the blunt candor
ry Kissinger-warned that the headlong
think it will work. But if that's what you
that has distinguished his domestic efforts
rush to cut missiles was not being guided
want to do, go ahead." He added omi-
at economic reform. In his talk with news
by any strategic vision of how the U.S.
nously: "We are moving in another direc-
executives, he referred to the Soviet
and its allies could best defend their vital
tion, and we preserve our option to do
Union as the "world's second ranking
interests. Yet another surprise "break-
what we think is necessary and in our own
power." The remark, which surprised
through" that discarded the carefully
national interest at that time. And we
many Westerners in the audience, was
wrought strategies of deterrence could
think we can do it less expensively and
consistent with the message he has been
have been disconcerting.
with greater effectiveness."
stressing at home: that the Soviet Union
As it was in Reykjavík last year, SDI
U.S. experts were unsure what he
must squarely face up to the problems in
remained the main stumbling block to a
meant but offered several possible expla-
its economic system. Soviet Foreign Min-
major breakthrough. The Soviets have
nations: that the Soviets were working on
istry Spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov lat-
long claimed that all but the most basic
their own defensive system (a fact that
er told TIME that it was the first time Gor-
Star Wars research is precluded by the
Gorbachev seemed to concede in his in-
bachev had put his country's runner-up
status so bluntly. Quipped Gerasimov:
"He conceded-to Japan."
But Gorbachev bared his teeth on
several occasions, betraying a testiness
that belied his appeals to sweet reason.
The Soviet leader's performance at his
farewell press conference, in fact, may
have undone some of the political gains
of the previous three days. After arriving
15 minutes late at the Soviet Union's
new Mt. Alto embassy complex, he
launched into a detailed 70-minute
monologue summing up his talks with
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL EVANS AND DENNIS BRACK-BLACK STAR
Reagan. Near the end of his statement,
however, he suddenly delivered a dia-
tribe against the press-the very group
he most needed to win over to get his
message across.
Chopping the air with his hands and
jutting out his lower lip, Gorbachev
charged that all journalists wanted to do
was grill him on human rights, "as if we
are agreeing to give interviews not just to
try to search for the truth, to prod each
other to serious thinking, but to drive the
politician into a corner." He then in-
The Soviet boss during his 70-minute
address at a farewell press conference
TIME. DECEMBER 21, 1987
DIANA WALKER
DENNIS STAR
The Reagans await their guests' arrival
A young supporter gets a boost for détente
Glasnost in Arlington: Soviet Chief of Staff
terview with NBC's Tom Brokaw two
ity of the ABM treaty: At the same time, it
can politicians called that "working the
weeks ago); that they might consider
sought to reach agreement on the "sub-
crowds." Gorbachev laughed and won
breaking the moratorium on antisatellite
ceilings" that would be placed on differ-
Reagan's hearty endorsement of his ob-
systems, which could cripple space-based
ent types of strategic missiles and bomb-
servation that leaders learned more when
SDI components; or that they might resort
ers within the framework of reducing
traveling in the provinces than in their
to abrogating existing treaties and re-
each side's warheads by half. The group
own capitals. There was unintended irony
building their nuclear arsenals.
was still struggling with texts and num-
in Gorbachev's remark, since for all his
American analysts were similarly baf-
bers as Gorbachev and Reagan were end-
efforts to impress his views on Americans
fled by another vague Gorbachev claim,
ing their final working lunch in the Fam-
during this trip, he had shown little inter-
made during his final press conference,
ily Dining Room of the White House.
est in learning about the country itself.
that the Soviets possessed the means to
Stretching out their meal while waiting
Finally, the arms-control group
identify the location and megatonnage of
for negotiators to finish, Gorbachev and
reached consensus and rejoined the lead-
land- and sea-based nuclear weapons-
Reagan lapsed into casual conversation.
ers. Gorbachev was escorted to the map
even those deployed on submarines. If the
The two leaders got to talking about being
room to be briefed by Akhromeyev, while
Soviets could indeed pinpoint U.S. subs,
politicians. Reagan told Gorbachev that
Reagan retired to the library, where Sec-
they could neutralize a key leg of the U.S.
he had watched his curbside handshaking
retary of State George Shultz and Lieut.
nuclear triad. State Department and Pen-
interlude on TV, explaining that Ameri-
General Colin Powell, the National Secu-
tagon experts were highly skep-
rity Adviser, explained the lan-
tical that the Soviets possessed
guage to him. Informed that the
such technology.
Joint Chiefs were satisfied with
However obscure Gorba-
Nancy's Reflections
the text, Reagan approved it.
chev was about his secret hard-
"I know there are all these stories about trouble between myself and
Then he went to shake hands
ware, he left no doubt that the
with Gorbachev before accom-
SDI issue was no longer an ob-
Mrs. Gorbachev," Nancy Reagan said in a conversation with TIME'S
panying him to the South Lawn
stacle to an agreement on stra-
Hugh Sidey last Friday. "They started in Geneva, about the fashion
for the farewell ceremony.
tegic cuts. This was a consider-
war. Such stories are so trivial and silly. The real story is that the
able concession from the
The working group had re-
U.S. and the Soviet Union have gotten to this point, have signed a
fined instructions for the Soviet
Soviets, whose insistence on
nipping Star Wars in the bud
treaty, and there is a better, more open relationship.
and U.S. negotiators in Geneva,
"Mr. Gorbachev toldme that he and Raisa were troubled by jet lag.
who will seek to translate them
had led them to link SDI restric-
I get jet lag when I go to California. He says he was drinking a lot of
into treaty language over the
tions to the tentative wide-
ranging agreements reached at
coffee. I don't drink coffee, but maybe I should start." The First Lady
next few months. As originally
the Reykjavík summit last year.
stressed that she was looking forward to her trip to Moscow. "I told
agreed in Reykjavík, the plan
calls for a 50% reduction in
Yet the Soviets have long pur-
Mr. Gorbachev that our son [Ron Jr.] had been there twice and had told
overall nuclear warheads, down
sued a tactic of linking and un-
us all about it and wanted us to go. I think the way the General Secre-
to 6,000 for each side. Of those,
linking and then relinking SDI
tary had groups of Americans in to talk with him was a good thing. I
the combined number of inter-
to other agreements; the idea is
wonder if we could have some Soviet groups in if we got to Moscow."
continental ballistic missiles
sure to come back to haunt a
Mrs. Reagan praised the "good chemistry" between her husband
plus submarine-launched bal-
START agreement before the
two leaders can clink glasses
and Gorbachev. "They can talk candidly now, and they do. They both
listic missiles was limited at
again in Moscow next year.
understand there are big differences. But they know now the point
4,900. No more than 1,540 war-
The Nitze-Akhromeyev
beyond which they do not press the other. When they get there, they
heads can be on heavy
working group focused its ef-
cool it. This has taken a long time happening. Ronnie held out for
multiwarhead missiles. They
'zero option' at first, then he walked out of Reykjavík, and now we
also agreed to a limit of 1,600
forts on drafting the language of
delivery systems (missile
its joint communiqué in such a
are here. It's a beginning. If we go to Moscow in June, maybe we will
launchers, bombers, etc.). Veri-
way as to defer the SDI problem
make more progress. And, by golly, it was Ronnie who did it."
fication procedures remain to
without undermining the valid-
be worked out, although U.S.
20
TIME, DECEMBER 21, 1987
TERRY ARTHUR
mise that allows the two leaders to take
compared the Soviet Union's emigration
opposed positions on SDI. Does this mean
curbs with America's restrictions on im-
the Soviets have accepted the inevitabil-
migrants, notably from Mexico. Replied
ity of eventual SDI deployment? Hardly.
Reagan, quite rightly: "There's a big dif-
They have given up on trying to get this
ference between wanting out and wanting
President to accept any formula that ex-
in." Not surprisingly, the debate led
plicitly limits SDI testing. Yet they see
nowhere.
that Congress is applying its own budget-
Nor was there any movement on re-
ary constraints on Star Wars and has
gional issues. There had been some hope
made it clear that it will not let the Ad-
that Gorbachev would announce a start-
ministration break out of the narrow in-
ing date for a promised Soviet withdraw-
terpretation of the ABM treaty.
al from Afghanistan, but he declined to
Moreover, given the still preliminary
do so unless Reagan cut off aid to the
state of the program, Reagan has little
Afghan rebels. There was no agreement,
need to violate the narrow interpretation
either, on Nicaragua or the Persian Gulf.
right away. Having won the President's
Commenting on the lack of progress in
commitment not to withdraw from the
these areas, Administration officials
ABM treaty, the Soviets are content to wait
pointed out that in private meetings Gor-
and deal with the next President on the
bachev was much tougher than the
question of what the treaty means. Yet it
charming image he offered to the public.
would be a mistake to assume that they
"What you have gained is a guy you can
have totally delinked SDI from the ques-
talk to," said one Reagan aide, "but
tion of strategic arms reductions. In his
when it comes to substantive changes,
Friday press conference, Reagan flatly
forget it."
stated that Star Wars now offers "no im-
That judgment seems excessive. The
pediment" to a START agreement. That
INF treaty offers proof that a man one
Marshal Sergel Akhromeyev enters the Pentagon
view, however, was openly disputed by a
can talk to is a man one can deal with-
senior arms-control adviser, who noted
at least some of the time. In an upbeat
officials feel their earlier breakthroughs
that the Soviets might well relink the issue
press conference at week's end, Reagan
on INF on-site inspections will take them
before the Moscow summit.
said an "entirely different relationship"
a long way toward finding solutions.
had now been established between him-
On SDI, the language worked out was
he two sides made even less pro-
self and Gorbachev. To place too much
both tortured and mushy, just what was
T
gress on the other issues under dis-
significance on the wonders that can
needed to defer the dispute to another
cussion. Reagan began the very
come from more amiable relations and
day. Says Gerasimov: "It means we post-
first session with an hour-long lec-
personal rapport would be foolish and
poned our quarrels." The negotiators in
ture on human rights, pointing out that
would dangerously ignore the vicissi-
Geneva were instructed to "work out an
the U.S., a nation of immigrants, felt
tudes of Soviet-American relations since
agreement that would commit the sides
strongly about the right of people to travel
World War II. Yet to dismiss the oppor-
to observe the ABM treaty, as signed in
and live where they pleased. He referred
tunity created by the vigorous Soviet
1972, while conducting their research,
in particular to the cases of Jews who
leader who came calling last week would
development and testing as required,
were not permitted to leave the Soviet
be equally foolish, and perhaps just as
which are permitted by the ABM treaty,
Union. In the heated discussion that fol-
dangerous.
-By Thomas A. Sancton.
and not to withdraw from the ABM treaty
lowed, Gorbachev angrily told the Presi-
Reported by James O. Jackson with Gorbachev,
for a specified period of time." Behind
dent, "I'm not on trial here, and you're
Barrett Seaman and Strobe Talbott/
the convoluted language lies a compro-
not a judge to judge me." Gorbachev then
Washington
Bon voyage: the leaders applaud the meeting that Reagan said "lit the sky with hope for all people of goodwill"
DENNIS BRACK-BLACK STAR
The Presidency
Hugh Sidey
Not Since Jefferson Dined Alone
M
ikhail Gorbachev sat on Nancy Reagan's right. On her
wondered Billington; then he queried him about Soviet
left was Richard Perle, former Pentagon hard-liner and
writers. Gorbachev's reading was current, and included the
Soviet nemesis. The President was fianked by Raisa Gorba-
so-called village writers, who have deplored the loss of rural
chev and Jeane Kirkpatrick. And the State Dining Room
values in Russia.
was filled with the unlikeliest 125 people one could imagine
Congressman Dick Cheney asked what Gorbachev
supping together: Henry Kissinger and Meadowlark Lemon,
wanted his country to be in 20 years. He hoped, Gorbachev
great Globetrotters both; Claudette Colbert and Moscow's
replied, to see a society more dynamic, more open and more
supreme propagandist, Alexander Yakovlev; Ted Graber,
democratic. Billington made a mental note that the transla-
Nancy's interior designer, and Georgi Arbatov, the Krem-
tion was more appealing than the original Russian.
lin's noted American expert; Joe DiMaggio and Pearl Bailey;
There was virtually no talk of children, homes or hob-
David Rockefeller, Mary Lou Retton and Saul Bellow.
bies. The Soviet leader was at work. In his forceful way, Gor-
The centuries whispered to them. "I knew this was a spe-
bachev left little doubt that he cast himself as a man of desti-
cial moment," Mrs. Reagan thought as she entered the State
ny, that his reforms would make or break the Soviet nation.
Dining Room with her hus-
Looking straight at Cheney,
band and the Gorbachevs.
DIANA WALKER
he said, "This is the only op-
"The people there were hap-
portunity we will have."
py, uplifted," she later re-
Gorbachev told Perle he
called. The dinner was the af-
had seen a new film, from
firmation of the day's
Britain's Granada television
achievement and the gra-
and shown last week on PBS,
cious application of wine and
that dramatized the Rey-
warmth to see if the journey
kjavík summit. "The fellow
of peace could be pushed on
who played you lost a lot of
down the road a bit.
weight," laughed Gorbachev
History has traveled the
to the pleasantly padded
alimentary canal forever.
Perle, who relished the
George Washington worried
notoriety.
in his very first days as Presi-
Former CIA Director
dent in 1789 about how to
Richard Helms, barred from
hold official dinners, so im-
associating with powerful
portant a part of stewardship
Gorbachev, Mrs. Reagan and Richard Perle: "a special moment"
Communists for his entire ca-
did he consider the evening
reer, gripped the Gorbachev
ritual. Power was dispensed
hand and said, "I never ex-
in the evening at the table,
pected to meet a General
reasoned John Adams, just as
Secretary of the Communist
it was during the day.
Party." Gorbachev broke
"I've never seen a dinner
into a grin, and for that sec-
take off like this one," mar-
ond, perhaps, was as amazed
veled Graber. "I was stunned
as Helms.
by how much that evening
Reagan introduced Ed-
moved me," said former
ward Teller, father of the hy-
Democratic Party Chairman
drogen bomb and visionary
Robert Strauss, who sat
of Star Wars, to Gorbachev,
across from Nancy and Gor-
whose response was so mini-
bachev. "I've only felt it once
mal that Reagan thought he
before, at the dinner for Sa-
had not heard the name.
dat and Begin."
"This is the famous Dr. Tel-
Did the sense of destiny
ler," said the President.
and the Strolling Strings soft-
Raisa Gorbachev and the President joined in the mellow mood
"There are many Dr. Tel-
en the crusts of Gorbachev
lers," replied Gorbachev
and his crew of Soviets who mingled below the portrait of
coolly, seemingly haunted by his dissident H-bomb scientist
Abraham Lincoln? At the end, when Pianist Van Cliburn
Andrei Sakharov:
played Moscow Nights, Strauss thought he saw a bit of mist in
Billy Graham decided that Gorbachev had an "evangeli-
the eyes of the Gorbachevs as they sang along. It was surely
cal quality," but without God. And during the mellow Cli-
the most startling music in the East Room since Harry Tru-
burn sing-along at evening's end, George Will leaned over to
man played The Black Hawk Waltz.
Admiral William Crowe, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
The new Librarian of Congress, James Billington, a
Staff, and whispered, "That song just cost you 200 ships."
historian of Russian culture who speaks the language,
Maybe. But nothing on that evening was certain except
probed for a glimpse of the underlying vision that Gorbachev
the world was changing and that small assembly of Soviets
might hold. How would the Soviet government, he asked, of-
and Americans was witness to a rare act within the larger
ficially commemorate the millennium of Christianity in
drama. As he went out into the night, Helms cast a glance at
Russia next year? Gorbachev deftly avoided the question by
Lincoln with his chin in his hand. "I wonder what old Abe
indicating that his nation's ecclesiastical authorities were
would think," Helms mused. Then he added his own yearn-
making the preparations. How "Russian" was the man?
ing. "Maybe this time we can make it work."
22
TIME. DECEMBER 21, 1987
A person in the 20th century is at a loss to
DIANA WALKER
distribute his or her time."
Repeatedly, Nancy Reagan was
asked about frosty relations. "I've an-
swered that five times," she snapped and
turned deliberately toward Raisa Gorba-
chev. Coolly correct, Raisa added, "Ev-
erything is all right. Mrs. Reagan gave the
answer. She is the hostess, and that was
her word." Another reporter asked if
Raisa would like to live in the White
House. Perhaps unaware that the Rea-
gans' living quarters are upstairs, Raisa
glanced at her opulent surroundings.
"This is an official residence," she said. "I
would say, humanly speaking, that a hu-
man being would like to live in a regular
house." Smiling, she added, "This is a mu-
seum of American history."
After the visit, East Wing aides snick-
ered at the black dress with rhinestone
belt buckle that Raisa had worn to the
late-morning coffee. "A bit cocktailish,
don't you think?" one said. White House
The visitor and her guide near a portrait of Pat Nixon in the "museum"
officials were also miffed that Raisa chose
to set up a colloquy with prominent wom-
en at the home of Democratic Fund Rais-
Confrontation of the Superwives
er Pamela Harriman. Among the guests:
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
Vivacious and voluble, Raisa upstages the First Lady
O'Connor, University of Chicago Presi-
dent Hanna Gray, Publisher Katharine
Piqued at Raisa Gorbachev's
tation toward the television cameras, was
Graham and Senators Barbara Mikulski
one-woman triumph at the
stumped. An assistant curator came to the
and Nancy Kassebaum. Nonetheless, by
Reykjavík summit, Nancy
rescue with dates: between 1792 and 1800.
the end of the summit, official patch-up
Reagan was known to con-
"I'm not much help," Nancy Reagan con-
stories were issuing from the White
sider the Soviet First Lady
fessed, in obvious exasperation.
House. Raisa, it was said, had asked Nan-
imperious and dogmatic.
The tour was an almost comical con-
cy at the Soviets' Thursday dinner, "What
Preparations for the Washington summit
frontation of the two superwives, each
is this about our not liking each other?"
seemed to confirm that impression. Raisa
fighting to get her way with elaborate po-
The First Lady described her Soviet coun-
had taken her time accepting an invita-
litesse. But as much as Nancy Reagan
terpart as puzzled. "Such stories are so
tion to tea, insisting that the hour be
tugged at Raisa Gorbachev's elbow, try-
trivial and silly," Nancy Reagan said.
changed. She was keeping her schedule a
ing to steer the diminutive (5 ft. 3 in.) Rus-
If the U.S. media made much of the
mystery, confounding efforts to plan
sian away from the cordoned-off journal-
tiff, Raisa's activities were given more so-
ahead. So when the Soviets asked to bring
ists, she was outmaneuvered. A reporter
ber coverage in the Soviet Union, where
five extra guests to Tuesday's state dinner,
asked Raisa whether she would be meet-
she is referred to as "Gorbachev's spouse."
the word quickly came back: forget it.
ing ordinary Americans. Her flattering
Despite recent criticism that Raisa has as-
But if the East Wing of the White
reply: "Meeting you, for me, is meeting
sumed too visible a role, Soviet television
House was waging cold war while the
Americans. This time our visit is too
viewers were treated to a snippet of her
West Wing celebrated a thaw, the rest of
short. I hope next time will be longer." At
singing Moscow Nights at the state dinner.
Washington found Raisa Maximovna
one point she launched into a discussion
TASS, the state news agency, published sto-
Gorbachev dazzling. Vivacious and volu-
of modern life: "In our age, all of us have
ries about her National Gallery visit and
ble, she beamed her strobe-light smile,
to work. We have professional duties. We
her meeting with a friendly group of Ar-
melting the eye glaze of receiving lines.
have family duties as well as social duties.
menians at the Soviet embassy.
She asked questions and delivered
By chance, the Armenian gather-
on-the-spot sermons and exhorta-
TERRY ARTHUR
ing gave Raisa an opportunity to show
tions. She cracked jokes. And, rival-
off her unflappability. Informed of the
ing her husband, she tamed the me-
unauthorized presence of a TIME cor-
dia like the tiger handler at the
respondent, Raisa purred, "There is
Gorky Park circus: with flourishes,
nothing to be concerned about. The
grins and bows to the audience.
American and Soviet press should
The U.S. was "lovely," an-
work together to build peace." She put
nounced the onetime lecturer on
her arm around the correspondent
Marxist-Leninist philosophy at
and smiled as her personal photogra-
Moscow State University. At the
pher took their picture.
National Gallery, when employees
Raisa's campaign appearances
gathered to applaud her, she stopped
revealed a convergence of the Gor-
to chat, noting that she was "glad to
bachev style: each talking but rarely
see so many of the staff are women."
listening, each lecturing and postur-
On a White House tour, she pep-
ing, while gushing charm. "This is
pered Nancy Reagan with queries:
the first person I've ever met who
Was that a 19th century chandelier?
talks more than I do." marveled
Did Jefferson live here? And, by the
Barbara Mikulski after her encoun-
way, when was the White House
ter with Raisa. So what's new in
built? The First Lady, already irri-
A wave for the cameras with Pamela Harriman
politics?
By Margot Hornblower.
tated by her visitor's magnetic gravi-
"All of us have to work. We have professional duties."
Reported by Nancy Traver/Washington
23
TIME, DECEMBER 21, 1987
YEAR
OF THE
MAN
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JANUARY4, 4, 1988
EXC - OFF-PRES EOPW
726 JACKSON PL-G220
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HINGTON DC 20503
MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH GORBACHEV
THE EDUCATION OF
IME
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Robt West
hello
Peter 466-9464 B. Johnson
on
833-4220
postponed returning -
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Donna
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Михаил
Mikhail Gorbachev. The name, the beaming, birthmarked visage and
the outstretched, crowd-caressing hand have become so familiar in the
past 33 months that it is difficult to remember the man's predecessors.
Vague images come to mind of stone-faced figures frozen in mid-frown
atop the Lenin Mausoleum. Gargoyles in fur hats. Perhaps Gorbachev's
most obvious accomplishment is that he has reinvented the idea of a
Soviet leader. Virtually everything about his country and its place in
A. CHUMICHEV/Y. LIZUNOV-TASS
world affairs seems less ponderous, less opaque than it did before he
became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
But one should not get carried away. The Soviet Union is still a one-
party dictatorship, the economy is ramshackle, the bureaucracy is a
menace, and what about human rights, Mr. General Secretary?
Nonetheless, Soviet writers, artists and journalists have begun issuing the
sort of critiques that used to earn a one-way ticket to Siberia. So has the
boss. Take, for instance, this blast at Gosplon, the state planning
committee: "They do what they want, and the situation they like best is
when everybody has to beg."
At home, expectations are rising. Some small-scale
private enterprise is now legal, and state industries
will soon have wide new freedoms. Even Gorbachev
concedes that his regime's true test will be whether it can
produce better food, clothing and shelter for its citizens.
OF THE
No leader has said that with such vigor and conviction
since Nikita Khrushchev a quarter-century ago.
In the world at large, Gorbachev has helped nudge
his country and Ronald Reagan's off the path to nuclear
YEAR
destruction. True, the treaty scrapping intermediate-
range missiles that was signed at the Washington
summit is only a small diminution of the arms race. But
it is a beginning, made possible in part by Gorbachev's
acceptance of verification procedures that no previous Soviet leader
would countenance. The treaty just might lead to a more significant
reduction in long-range nuclear weapons this year.
Or perhaps the reverie will end, as did the false dawn of the
Khrushchev years. Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring)
may turn out to be less "irreversible" than Gorbachev proclaims them
to be. Even so, his reforms can no longer be dismissed as a mere matter
of style, of a telegenic new face in the Kremlin. Gorbachev is that, to
be sure. Also a dedicated Communist. Also a ruthless political
HAND LETTERING FOR TIME BY GERARD HEURTA; SYMBOL BY MICHAEL DORET
opportunist. In 1987 he became something more, a symbol of hope for
a new kind of Soviet Union: more open, more concerned with the
welfare of its citizens and less with the spread of its ideology and system
abroad. For fanning that hope, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is TIME's
Man of the Year for 1987.
But who is he? Where did he come from? How did he acquire his
personality, his ideas, his power? In an unprecedented journalistic inquiry,
TIME correspondents in the Soviet Union and beyond interviewed dozens
of Gorbachev's colleagues, onetime schoolmates, the handful of foreigners
he has known, and others who have encountered the former Stavropol
farm boy on his rise to prominence. The magazine has also assembled the
largest collection of official and family photographs of Gorbachev ever
published. The result is a rare glimpse into the life and character of the
year's most remarkable figure.
-By Donald Morrison
Bucharest,
1987
WITH THE GUSTO OF A WESTERN POLITICIAN
16
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
LI
8861 'f JANUARY 'HWIL
THE SOVIET GENERAL SECRETARY PRESSES THE FLESH ON A MAY VISIT TO THE RUMANIAN CAPITAL, WITH WIFE RAISA JUST BEHIND HIS SHOULDER
'NAI
Die
Пороачев
The Education of
Mikhail Sergeyevich
Gorbachev
An intimate biography of the private man
fficials of the Zavorovo state
from the ideals of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the
O
farm near Moscow had pre-
founder of the Soviet state and Gorbachev's
pared carefully for the big day
idol. And though he argues frequently for a new
last August. They had even built
relationship with the U.S., he seems to have an
a special staircase to spare their
odd conception of America as a Dickensian hell
distinguished visitor the indig-
ruled by the military-industrial complex.
nity of climbing down a hill to
The contradictions in his personality are
the potato fields below the main road. Mikhail
enough to raise a question: Who exactly is Mi-
Gorbachev would have none of it. Stepping out
khail Sergeyevich Gorbachev? It is not an easy
of his ZIL limousine, he gave the staircase a dis-
question to answer: unhappily, glasnost does
missive wave and scrambled down the steep in-
not yet extend to the life of its author. One
cline in his neatly pressed gray business suit,
reason, no doubt, is his wariness about encour-
leaving his surprised entourage to run after him
aging a "cult of personality"-the euphemism
"The
in full view of television cameras.
for glorification of an all-powerful leader,
At the bottom of the hill, Gorbachev asked
which reached sickening heights under Joseph
economy is a
the farmers, lined up beside their equipment like
Stalin in Gorbachev's student days and is thus
soldiers on parade, about the mood on the farm.
associated in Soviet minds with Stalin's terror.
mess. We are
"Good. Businesslike," came the replies. Gorba-
Gorbachev has reacted to incipient hagiogra-
chev was not satisfied. "I always hear the same
behind in
phy in the Soviet press by being tight-lipped
answer," he said. "[But] there are always prob-
about his private life. Subordinates take their
lems." For example, he asked, was everything
cue from the boss. A high official mentioned to
every area
available "except for vodka," a teasing reference
a group of foreigners recently that he had
We have
to his antialcoholism campaign. Well, no, one
known the General Secretary as a university
farmer mumbled. It was the season for making
student. "What was Gorbachev like in those
forgotten how
jams and jellies, and sugar was scarce. Gorba-
days?" the man was asked. He paused reflec-
chev shot back: Do you know why? Moonshiners
tively, smiled and said, "I don't remember."
to work.
are buying up all the sugar to make home brew.
Gorbachev's official biography is little more
"Let's talk straight with one another," said the
than a bare-bones list of Communist Party of-
At the Central Committee
leader. "Isn't it time to bring the making of
fices held, and it lacks some of the most elemen-
Plenum, Jan. 28, 1987
moonshine to an end? That sort of people belong
tary information. For example, it is not known
back in the times when the dinosaurs lived."
for certain whether he has any siblings. Some So-
That exchange was typical of the Gorbachev
viets say he has a brother who works in agricul-
style, a remarkably Western mix of charm and
ture, but no one seems to know the man's name
sermonizing. The effect was apparent during the
or age. Reports of a sister cannot be confirmed.
December summit with Ronald Reagan. Alter-
nately jovial and argumentative, combining
rom a variety of sources, howev-
sharp intelligence with a homey touch and play-
F
er, TIME has pieced together a
ing to the camera in the most effective way-by
detailed, though still incomplete,
seeming to ignore it-he came across as a Krem-
picture of Gorbachev's early days
lin version of the Great Communicator. Add an
and his rise to command. The
attractive, strong-willed wife, and the picture of
story begins in Privolnoye, a
an American-style politician is complete.
farming village (pop. 3,000) in
Also misleading. In most of his views, Gor-
the south of the Russian republic, 124 miles
bachev is a thoroughly Soviet, obdurately Com-
from the city of Stavropol. A one-story brick
munist figure. When he speaks of "democracy,"
cottage with a small kitchen, three rooms and a
as he incessantly does, he does not mean any-
pleasant garden plot still stands there: Gorba-
thing Thomas Jefferson would have recognized;
chev was born in that house on March 2, 1931.
he promotes freer discussion within the Com-
It was a time of bloodshed and terror. Stalin's
munist Party only as a substitute for the politi-
drive to force Soviet peasants into collective
cal opposition he makes clear he will not toler-
farms was at its height. Those who resisted were
ate. If he voices criticism of Soviet society, it is
deported or shot. Peasants destroyed animals
because that system has in his view strayed
rather than let them be confiscated by the collec-
18
TIME. JANUARY 4, 1988
V. KUZMIN/N. MALYSHEV/A. CHUMICHEV-TASS
Severomorsk,
1987 SALUTING CREW OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DURING TOUR OF A NAVAL BASE IN THE MURMANSK REGION
CHUMICHEV/Y. LIZUNOV-TASS
V. KUZMIN-TASS
Moscow region, 1987 THE ONETIME COMBINE DRIVER CHECKS THE CROP AT A COLLECTIVE FARM
Moscow, 1985 WITH GRANDDAUGHTER
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
19
Bucharest, 1987
FOLK DANCING WITH RUMANIAN ALLIES IN SQUARE OF VICTORY
Leningrad, 1987
A MASTER OF ORATORY PROVING THAT
tives. That slaughter, along with the Soviet gov-
become fully aware of the destruction visited on
ernment's oppressive requisitions of grain from
his homeland. He has said that on that 800-mile
the newly formed collective farms, created a
train ride, he saw "the ruined Stalingrad, Ros-
man-made famine that was raging when Gorba-
tov, Kharkov and Voronezh. And how many
chev was born. Millions eventually died.
such ruined cities there were
Everything lay
The Gorbachev family probably avoided
in ruins: hundreds and thousands of cities, towns
the worst of the suffering: it was on the winning
and villages, factories and mills."
His father
side. Mikhail's grandfather Andrei helped or-
ganize the Khleborob (bread producer) collec-
ven earlier, though, the war
wrote home
tive farm in the year of Gorbachev's birth. An-
drei's son Sergei drove a combine for a nearby
from the front
government machine-tractor station. But Mik-
E
touched young Mikhail. In Privol-
noye, as in thousands of other vil-
lages and towns in the U.S.S.R.,
hail could hardly have helped hearing tales of
there is an eternal flame and a
urging his
the disruption that continued during his infan-
monument to those who lost their
cy. As General Secretary, Gorbachev has de-
lives in what Soviets call the Great
mother to sell
fended the collectivization and even the repres-
Patriotic War. The name Gorbachev appears on
sion of the kulaks (well-off peasants), who were
the memorial seven times, though it is not certain
anything she
deported or executed as class enemies. But per-
which of his relatives are meant. His father Ser-
could and buy
haps because of boyhood memories, he has crit-
gei was conscripted and fought at the front for
icized the brutality shown to a less prosperous
four years, during which "Misha" (the common
the boy shoes
group, the so-called middle peasants. A class-
Russian nickname for Mikhail) must have spent
mate remembers that as a college student after
much time alone with his mother Maria Pante-
because
Stalin's death, Gorbachev spoke of a middle-
leyevna Gorbachev. In a recent interview on So-
peasant relative who had been arrested and, the
viet TV, she recalled that at one period during the
"Misha must
classmate assumes, shot.
war Gorbachev could not go to school for several
Not long after the turmoil over collectiviza-
months because he had no shoes. Sergei wrote
go to school."
tion died down in the mid-1930s, the Soviet
home urging Maria Panteleyevna to sell any-
Union was hit by the second trauma of Gorba-
thing she could and buy shoes because "Misha
chev's boyhood: the Nazi invasion. Mikhail was
must go to school." Maria Panteleyevna, now
eleven years old when German tanks rumbled
well into her 70s and a widow (Sergei died in
into nearby Stavropol at the start of what be-
1976), continues to live in Privolnoye.
came the Stalingrad campaign. Hitler's troops
Growing up in a farming village, Gorbachev
stayed in the area for almost six months before
was introduced early to hard work. As a young
being driven out by the Red Army. In all proba-
boy, he probably accompanied his combine-
bility, though, the Nazis would not have both-
driver father into the fields. At 14 he was driv-
ered to occupy a village as small as Privolnoye, so
ing a combine himself after school and during
Gorbachev seems to have escaped the worst rig-
the summers. It was a hot and sweaty job in that
ors of the war. Only in 1950, when he traveled
part of the Soviet Union, where summer tem-
north to university in Moscow, did he apparently
peratures reach well into the 90s, and the com-
20
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
CHUMICHEV/Y. LIZUNOV-TASS
MICHAEL
rozlety
MALYSHEV/V. BUDAN-TASS
IAT
RUSSIAN IS A LANGUAGE BEST SPOKEN WITH THE HANDS
Bratislava, 1987
A YOUNG CZECH FAN WITH PICTURE OF HERO
bines had no cabins. After a few minutes the
managed to survive from prerevolutionary days.
driver would be surrounded by a cloud of grain
When he began his studies, the adulation of
chaff and dust that made breathing difficult. In
Stalin, "the greatest genius of all times and peo-
winter it was so cold that Gorbachev had to
ples," was at its height, and the earnest young
wrap himself in straw to keep from freezing. He
provincial was not immune to it. "He, like every-
stood it well enough to be awarded the Order of
one else at the time, was a Stalinist," says Zdenek
the Red Banner of Labor in 1949, a rare honor
Mlynar, a Czech who studied law at Moscow
for an 18-year-old. The award, his impeccable
State University and later became a top party of-
He heard
political credentials-peasant background, fa-
ficial in his homeland. But Gorbachev displayed
ther and grandfather Communist Party mem-
a streak of hardheaded realism about Soviet life.
from an
bers-and the silver medal he received upon
He and Mlynar once watched a propaganda
graduation from high school as second in his
movie, Cossacks of the Kuban, picturing happy
indignant
class all helped him win a place at Moscow
peasants at tables groaning with food. "It's not
State University in the fall of 1950.
like that at all," grumbled Gorbachev, who re-
mother of six
Gorbachev was already showing wide-rang-
membered hunger in his home region. Mlynar
ing intellectual curiosity. "I cannot even say for
adds that "when we were studying collective-
children how
which subjects I felt a special interest in school,"
farm law, Gorbachev explained to me how insig-
he told an Italian interviewer much later. "At the
nificant collective-farm legislation was in day-
the manager
outset I wanted to enter the physics faculty [of
to-day life and how important, on the other
Moscow State University]. I liked mathematics a
hand, was brute force, which alone secured
of a state store
lot, but I also liked history and literature. To this
working discipline on the collective farms."
day I can recite by heart poetry that I learned at
Fridrikh Neznansky, another fellow law
had treated
school." He lacked the entrance requirements to
student and now a Soviet émigré, recalls that
pursue science courses, so he decided to study law.
Gorbachev even then displayed a veneration for
her rudely.
The choice was unconventional. Law in
Lenin going well beyond what was demanded of
The
those Stalinist days had no prestige; it was even
Soviet students. He was especially impressed,
despised by many Soviets. The task of a lawyer
Neznansky says, by Lenin's doctrine of "one
was to find rationalizations for the state to crush
step forward, two steps back"-in other words,
storekeeper
its opponents. Nonetheless, Gorbachev's classes
the ability to maneuver and to retreat if neces-
was fired.
did expose him to a wider range of ideas than he
sary while pursuing a goal. Tactical flexibility
would have encountered pursuing a science cur-
has been a hallmark of Gorbachev's career ever
riculum. Like all other Soviet students, Gorba-
since. "In politics and ideology, we are seeking
chev was drilled in Marxism-Leninism, and
to revive the spirit of Leninism," Gorbachev
learned minute details about the life of Stalin.
writes in his recently published book, Peres-
But as a law student he took classes in the history
troika. "Many decades of being mesmerized by
of political ideas and studied the works of Thom-
dogma, by a rule-book approach, have had their
as Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke and Machiavelli.
effect. Today we want to introduce a genuinely
Gorbachev also studied Latin. Several classes
creative spirit into our theoretical work." The
were taught by professors who had somehow
first faint glimmerings of glasnost might also be
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
21
complicated schedule guaranteeing each of
them one hour alone in the room every week to
entertain a female guest. On the hall bulletin
board, the periods of privacy were discreetly
COURTESY HON. EUGENE WHELAN, P.C.
designated "cleaning hours."
One of the women down the hall from Gor-
bachev was Raisa Maximovna Titorenko, a
bright, popular philosophy student a year youn-
ger than he. Mlynar recalls that Mikhail initial-
ly had a good deal of competition for her atten-
tion, but the two eventually began seeing each
other regularly. They were married early in
1954. The couple celebrated the occasion mod-
estly with 30 or so other students at a party in the
corner of the dormitory eating hall, then went to
Gorbachev's room for their wedding night. Gor-
bachev's roommates had arranged to stay away.
The following day, however, they drifted back,
and Raisa returned to her room. The couple did
not live together until several months later,
when they obtained married-student accommo-
dations in the newly completed 34-story main
building of Moscow State University.
hough Gorbachev was trained as
T
a lawyer, he has never practiced;
his main interest from his earliest
days at Moscow State University
was politics. Even before leaving
Privolnoye, he had joined the
Komsomol, the youth league that
people ages 14 to 28 pass through in preparation
for joining the Communist Party. Armed with a
glowing recommendation from the Stavropol
committee, he became a Komsomol organizer at
the Moscow State University law school in 1952
and simultaneously, at 21, a member of the party
proper. He was assigned to a working-class area
Windsor, Ont., 1983
SNIFFING (NOT SWALLOWING) SAMPLES AT A DISTILLERY
of Moscow for propaganda activity and the han-
dling of constituents' complaints, while continu-
ing his Komsomol work at the university.
discerned in Gorbachev's law-school attitudes.
Those who knew Gorbachev as a young par-
Mlynar remembers that students were taught to
ty activist agree that he was a true believer
regard anyone who dissented from the Stalinist
among cynical careerists. He had some reserva-
line as a criminal. Gorbachev, however, re-
tions about particular policies, but when he
marked to his Czech classmate: "But Lenin did
spouted the Stalinist line of the moment, he did
The two
not order the arrest of Martov [leader of the
so with evident conviction. Lev Yudovich, who
Mensheviks, a socialist splinter group]. He al-
graduated two years ahead of Gorbachev, recalls
friends talked
lowed him to leave the country."
having the young ideologue pointed out to him as
Outside class, students led a grim existence.
someone to fear. There was reason to be wary of
and drank
Gorbachev spent the first three of his student
him: Neznansky asserts that when Gorbachev
years in the shabby Stromynka student hostel, an
into the night.
discovered that some fellow students had par-
18th century former barracks that housed 10,000
ents who were in political disgrace, he called for
young people packed eight or more to a room.
When they
their expulsion from the Komsomol and perhaps
There was a kitchen and a washroom on each
from the university as well. Michel Tatu, a prom-
floor, but no proper bathing facilities. Gorbachev
finally
inent French Kremlinologist and author of a
and his roommates would head to a public bath-
forthcoming biography of Gorbachev, is con-
returned to
house twice a month. They stored their personal
vinced that he joined in the vicious anti-Semitic
belongings in suitcases under the beds. Many of
rhetoric of Stalin's last purge, launched just be-
Gorbachev's
the youths could not even afford tea. Instead,
fore the dictator's death in early 1953. Mlynar
they drank "student tea," a concoction of hot wa-
does not deny that, but he insists that Gorbachev
apartment,
ter and sugar. The favorite diversion was foreign
steered clear of any individual persecutions.
movies, most of them captured by the Red Army
By 1955, the year of Gorbachev's gradua-
much the
from German forces and shown in the "culture
tion, the Stalinist ice had broken in the Soviet
club" on the main floor. Johnny Weissmuller's
Union. Nikita Khrushchev had taken over and
worse for
Tarzan movies were most popular. After one
was winding down the terror. Ghostly figures
such epic show, the Stromynka hostel would re-
began drifting back into Moscow from the labor
wear, Raisa
sound with jungle whoops by the students.
camps. But at the start of this period of ferment
In this maelstrom, Gorbachev somehow
and change, Gorbachev removed himself and
was furious.
found time and privacy for romance. Male and
Raisa from the relative sophistication of Mos-
female students lived on the same floors, though
cow and returned to the Stavropol area, where
they had separate sleeping and bathroom facili-
he was to stay for the next 23 years. According
ties. Gorbachev and his roommates drew up a
to Neznansky, the young graduate tried for a
22
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
position with the Moscow Komsomol appara-
tus but lost out to a classmate and had little
choice but to return to the provinces if he want-
ed to continue a career in party politics. It may
be too that Gorbachev felt an obligation to the
Stavropol Krai (territory) authorities, who had
apparently paid part of his university expenses,
or that he was simply homesick.
COURTESY HON. EUGENE WHELAN, P.C.
In any event, the Stavropol period remains
the most obscure of Gorbachev's life. It is known
that he rose fast, from a minor job in the local
Komsomol to its first secretary after less than a
year, then through a variety of Komsomol and,
later, party jobs. By 1962, when he was only 31,
he was choosing party members for promotion
throughout Stavropol Krai. Finally in 1970, at
the age of 39, he became first secretary of the ter-
ritory, a job equivalent to governor of an area
roughly the size of South Carolina, with about
2.4 million people. Along the way, he became a
specialist in farming, the main activity of the
area. He took correspondence courses from
Ottawa, Ont., 1983
A VISITOR FROM THE SOVIET POLITBURO TRIES HIS FIRST BITE OF LOBSTER
Stavropol Agricultural Institute, and in 1967
added a degree in agriculture to his Moscow law
degree. Soviet émigrés and Stavropol residents
provide some intriguing glimpses of Gorbachev
on his way up the party apparat.
Gorbachev showed an avid interest in the
press. Vladimir Maximov, a writer now living in
Paris who worked for a Stavropol Komsomol
newspaper in the 1950s, recalls that the young
official often visited the paper's offices for a chat.
COURTESY HON. EUGENE WHELAN, P.C.
"He would sit down with us in a casual manner,"
says Maximov. "We would uncork a bottle of
wine [for all his antialcoholism campaigning,
Gorbachev still enjoys an occasional drink] and
usually talk politics. Khrushchev's report on the
crimes of the Stalinist era had recently appeared.
The entire country was still reeling from shock."
Maximov and others of Gorbachev's generation,
however, remember the late 1950s as an exciting
time. Khrushchev's secret speech denouncing
Stalin at the 20th Communist Party Congress in
1956 briefly opened the way to a much freer at-
mosphere. It was a false dawn. Repression re-
sumed a few years later. To this day, however,
educated Soviets of Gorbachev's generation,
Niagara Falls, Ont., 1983
ADMIRING THE BACON IN A SUPERMARKET
whose political attitudes were formed then and
who are now moving into positions of power,
sometimes refer to themselves as "children of the
SYGMA
20th Congress."
Gorbachev's interest in the press continued
throughout the Stavropol period. As party boss
of the area, he often met with regional journalists
for talks similar to those he now holds in Moscow
with the national press. Unlike other party offi-
cials, he would stress that it was not enough for
the journalists to write articles that were ideolog-
ically correct; they also had to be interesting. "Is
anyone reading what you write?" he would ask.
Gorbachev remained open and accessible to
his constituents. He usually set out on foot for his
job each morning. Stavropolitans quickly
learned that they could avoid having to make a
formal appointment at Gorbachev's office on
Lenin Square by buttonholing him on his walk
up Dzerzhinsky Street and discussing their
problems then. He also began in Stavropol Krai
the walkabouts that were later to cause a nation-
al sensation when he continued the practice as
General Secretary. On a visit to a village in the
Izobilnynsky district, he heard from an indig-
Alberta,
1983 ON A CHOW LINE IN CANADIAN COWBOY COUNTRY DURING HIS TEN-DAY TOUR
nant mother of six children how the manager of
TIME. JANUARY 4, 1988
23
Golssen, East Germany, 1966 EXCHANGING VIEWS AT A PUB WITH LOCAL PARTY MEMBERS ON ONE OF HIS FIRST TRIPS ABROAD,
a state store had treated her rudely. The store-
"Ipatovsky method," a new technique of har-
keeper was fired. Gorbachev showed some inde-
vesting grain quickly by using flying squads of
pendence from Moscow when he was Stavropol
combines, was judged a smashing success. The
party boss. Turned down for state financing of a
idea was probably Kulakov's, but it was first
permanent circus building, he solicited funds
tried in the district of Ipatovsky, in Stavropol
from local organizations and institutions and got
Krai, under Gorbachev's supervision. The
the building put up anyway.
young regional politician was accorded the hon-
The Gorbachevs relieved the monotony of
or of an interview on the front page of Pravda,
provincial life with several trips to Western Eu-
his first taste of national publicity.
rope, Mikhail traveling as a member of party
delegations visiting foreign Communists and
eography gave Gorbachev a
Raisa once or twice accompanying him. On the
G
mighty assist too. Christian
first trip, in 1966, Gorbachev later recalled, the
Schmidt-Hauer, a West Ger-
couple rented a Renault and spent several weeks
man journalist and biogra-
driving 3,400 miles through the length and
pher, observes that if Gorba-
breadth of France, with a side trip to Italy.
chev had been party chief in,
Was Gorbachev getting restless with pro-
He and his
say, Murmansk in the far
vincial posts? Perhaps. Mlynar, who was rising
north, he would never have become General
toward the top levels of the Czech Communist
Secretary. But in Stavropol Krai, he was on hand
roommates
Party, visited his old classmate in 1967 and re-
to welcome top Moscow officials who came to
calls that Gorbachev complained about exces-
drew up a
the local spas at Mineralnye Vody and Kislo-
sive interference by Moscow in local affairs.
vodsk for vacations and medical treatment.
schedule
Mlynar described the sweeping reforms that Al-
They found their host unusual in several re-
exander Dubček was then beginning in Czecho-
spects. Says Soviet Historian Roy Medvedev: "A
allowing each
slovakia. He remembers Gorbachev saying,
regional party first secretary who was intelligent
with a sigh, "Perhaps there are possibilities in
and congenial would have been considered un-
of them one
Czechoslovakia because conditions are differ-
typical. If Gorbachev had yelled, sworn, been a
ent." The Czech reforms, however, were
heavy drinker or a high liver with a rest house
hour alone in
crushed by Soviet tanks the following year, and
outside of town where officials could be enter-
Mlynar went into exile; he now lives in Austria.
tained by pretty waitresses, that would have
the room
The two old friends talked and drank through
been considered normal behavior."
that afternoon and deep into the night. When
Gorbachev was not like that at all. He was a
every week to
they finally returned to Gorbachev's apartment,
quiet and pleasant host with a reputation
much the worse for wear, Raisa was furious.
throughout the district for incorruptibility.
entertain a
Just how Gorbachev rose out of provincial
Writer Maximov relates a story about a mutual
obscurity is still somewhat mysterious. As late
female guest.
friend, a poet, who asked Gorbachev as a young
as 1978, few outside Stavropol Krai had ever
Komsomol official to help him buy a Volga se-
heard of him. The best answer seems to be that
dan. Gorbachev obligingly used his influence to
he attracted a number of powerful patrons. The
speed delivery. The poet promptly sold the car
first was Fyodor Kulakov, who as party boss in
on the black market and returned to ask Gorba-
Stavropol first spotted Gorbachev as having
chev for help in buying another. Says Maximov:
great promise. After Kulakov became Agricul-
"Gorbachev did not usually lose his temper, but
ture Secretary for the entire Soviet Union, Gor-
on that occasion he started shouting and threw
bachev eventually succeeded him in Stavro-
the poet out of his office, ordering him never to
pol-and Kulakov apparently made sure his
show his face there again."
protégé became known in Moscow. In 1977 the
The young party chief's reputation pleased
24
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
ber and 21 years younger than the average age
of his colleagues.
One reason Gorbachev's agriculture record
was not held against him was simply that the
Kremlin leadership found itself in desperate
need of new blood. Brezhnev's health was falter-
ing, and his 18-year regime was sinking into a
twilight of stagnation and corruption. When
His
Brezhnev died in 1982 and Andropov came into
office with plans for reform, he immediately be-
grandparents
gan grooming Gorbachev to become a key lieu-
tenant in his clean-up campaign.
once took him
Gorbachev was already preparing himself
for national leadership. While still in charge of
to church. He
farming, he gathered Soviet academic experts
for a series of seminars held sometimes in the
said, though,
Central Committee offices, sometimes in a da-
cha outside Moscow. The sessions started with
that he had no
problems of agriculture but quickly developed
into freewheeling discussions of what was wrong
desire to go
with the economy in general and how it might be
fixed. Among the participants were Economist
back.
Abel Aganbegyan, who had been urging decen-
tralization and a wider role for market incen-
Golssen, 1966
tives since the mid-1960s, and Tatyana Zaslavs-
RECEIVING
A
PIONEER'S
GIFT
kaya, a leading sociologist. Zaslavskaya recalls
one encounter with Gorbachev: "I sat next to
two important spa guests: Mikhail Suslov, then
him. It is incredible what power and drive ema-
the chief Soviet ideologist, and KGB Chief Yuri
nate from him. One. feels as if it were a strong
Andropov, both austere figures disgusted by the
field of energy. His vitality is extraordinary, and
corruption of the Brezhnev era. When Kulakov
yet, although you feel this tension, he is a good
died in 1978, he left vacant the position of Com-
listener and waits for you to finish."
munist Party Central Committee Secretary in
The rising Kremlin star got a firsthand look at
charge of agriculture. To fill it, General Secre-
how far the Soviet economy had fallen behind the
tary Leonid Brezhnev, presumably acting on
West's. When Gorbachev joined the national hi-
the advice of Suslov and Andropov, chose a man
erarchy, he was already well traveled by compari-
he had evidently met only recently: Gorbachev.
son with such other Soviet leaders as Andropov,
That meeting occurred on Sept. 19, 1978, at the
who never set foot outside the Communist world,
tiny railroad station in Mineralnye Vody, where
and Suslov, who reportedly once told a visa appli-
Brezhnev's train stopped for a brief time. In one
cant that he saw no reason why anyone would
of the more remarkable moments in Soviet his-
want to journey beyond the U.S.S.R.
tory, four men who were all to serve as General
Secretary found themselves on the same narrow
station platform: Brezhnev; Andropov, who had
come over from the nearby spa and in 1982
would succeed Brezhnev; Konstantin Cher-
nenko, then Brezhnev's chief aide and in 1984
Andropov's successor; and Gorbachev, who
would take over from Chernenko as General
Secretary the following year. Less than a month
after that gathering, Gorbachev was plucked
out of Stavropol to become, at 47, a member of
the national hierarchy, ranking 20th among all
Soviet leaders.
How he leaped from there to No. 1 in only
seven more years is another question still not
fully answered. Certainly his rise was not attrib-
utable to any glittering success in agriculture.
Quite the opposite: the grain harvest fell from a
record 230 million tons in 1978, when Gorba-
chev was taking over the agriculture portfolio,
to a calamitous total of perhaps only 155 million
tons in 1981. Bad weather played a role. So did
Brezhnev, who announced a grandiose reorga-
nization of agriculture that seemed to create
more problems than it solved. Still, it is remark-
able that Gorbachev managed not only to es-
cape blame but to advance his career amid the
farming fiasco. Only a year after returning. to
Moscow, he became a candidate member of the
Politburo. The following year, at 49, he was
made a full member. Gorbachev was eight years
younger than the next youngest Politburo mem-
Golssen,
1966
EVER INTERESTED IN AGRICULTURE, HE TOURS A PIG FARM
TIME. JANUARY 4, 1988
25
As a Politburo member, Gorbachev in 1983
ers at School No. 514 and nurses' pay with the staff
headed a Soviet agricultural delegation on a visit
of City Hospital No. 53. He even dropped into a
to Canada and spent ten days poking around
young couple's apartment for tea. That was the
farms, processing plants and supermarkets. At
first of the walkabouts that have taken him, some-
one cattle ranch, he asked to see "some of the
times accompanied by Raisa, from Murmansk in
workers." The rancher replied that there were
the north to Kamchatka on the shores of the Pa-
none; he ran the spread of several hundred acres
cific. On several of his tours he has displayed an
with only his family and a handful of day labor-
easy informality and an almost impish distaste for
ers. A Canadian host who speaks Russian heard
ceremonial oratory. Entering the hall of the Star-
RICHARDSON & STEIRMAN
Gorbachev mutter under his breath, "We are not
nikovsky Farm near Moscow to talk to livestock
going to see this [in the Soviet Union] for another
breeders last summer, he veered away from the
50 years." Eugene Whelan, then Minister of Ag-
row of seats on the tribunal and perched on the
riculture and Gorbachev's official host, was sur-
edge of the table so that he could be closer to the
prised on another occasion to hear the Soviet
crowd. In October, at the Baltic Shipyards in Len-
leader comment about the invasion of Afghani-
ingrad, a spokesman for the workers began a
stan: "It was a mistake." (He was later to call Af-
monotone welcoming speech expressing a wish
ghanistan a "bleeding wound," but in public he
that perestroika would develop even faster. Gor-
still justifies the invasion.) In the same year,
bachev interrupted with playful cries of "Davai!
however, Gorbachev served on a Politburo cri-
Davai!" (Let's go to it!), drawing a big laugh from
sis-management subgroup that sought to justify
the crowd.
the Soviet downing of a Korean Air Lines pas-
Gorbachev has an apartment in central
senger jet by asserting that the plane had been on
Moscow, but lives most of the time in a closed
a spying mission for the U.S.
and guarded area of single-family mansions on
the western outskirts of the city. From there he
y the time a fatal kidney ailment
is driven downtown daily at 9 a.m. in a four-ZIL
B
cut short Andropov's tenure in
motorcade: one car for himself; two for aides
early 1984, Gorbachev was al-
and bodyguards, and a heavily curtained vehicle
ready a candidate to succeed his
bristling with antennas that is assumed to carry
former mentor. At Andropov's fu-
the coding equipment for launching nuclear
neral, Gorbachev made a telling
weapons. His main office is on the fifth floor of
Privolnoye, 1986 ON ONE
gesture of his closeness to the late
the Central Committee headquarters, a quarter
OF THE ANNUAL TRIPS HOME TO
General Secretary: he was the only Politburo
of a mile from the Kremlin; he also maintains an
SEE HIS MOTHER
member publicly to console Andropov's be-
office in a building just behind the Lenin Mauso-
reaved widow Tatyana. But the Old Guard
leum and the Kremlin wall, but he uses it mostly
made a final stand, choosing Chernenko in-
to receive visitors. He usually returns home at
stead. Gorbachev went along, and even agreed
about 6 p.m. in another motorcade. Extra traffic
to make the nominating speech. He probably
police are stationed along Kutuzovsky Prospekt
knew his turn would come soon enough. Ailing
to clear the central lanes for the four limousines.
and 72, Chernenko was not going to last long. In
He stays downtown late only when there is some
fact, through much of his year in power Cher-
special ceremonial function or when, as often
nenko was so ill that Gorbachev, his principal
deputy, in effect ran the country.
Even so, he had opposition. Grigori Roma-
nov, the hard-line former Leningrad party boss
who was once thought to be Gorbachev's chief
rival, had apparently given up on winning the
top job for himself. But at the Politburo session
called immediately after Chernenko's death,
Romanov reportedly tried a stop-Gorbachev
maneuver, nominating Moscow Party Boss Vik-
tor Grishin for General Secretary. By some ac-
counts, however, KGB Chief Viktor Chebrikov
hinted that his agency had compiled dossiers on
corruption in the Moscow party apparatus that
could be highly embarrassing to Grishin. (Che-
brikov was then a candidate member of the Po-
litburo; he has since moved up to full member-
ship.) Andrei Gromyko, then Foreign Minister,
carried the day with a nominating speech for
Gorbachev during which he coined the now cel-
ebrated remark, "This man has a nice smile, but
he has iron teeth." Gromyko's speech was sur-
prising in two respects: it appears to have been
improvised, and it contained none of the lengthy
recitation of the hero's accomplishments tradi-
tional on such occasions. Gromyko appeared to
be saying: this man has not really done all that
much yet, but he is still the best we have.
Gorbachev had been in power only a month
when he roamed around the industrial Proletar-
sky district of Moscow, visiting supermarkets,
chatting with workers at the Likhachyov truck
factory, discussing computer training with teach-
Moscow, 1987
DAUGHTER IRINA AND HER HUSBAND ANATOLI
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
27
Privolnoye, circa 1935 AT AGE FOUR, "MISHA" WAS GROWING UP AMID STALIN-ERA FAMINE AND REPRESSION
ВКИН ООЛОБУЕВА" САФРО
GBM
ОРБАЧЕВ M.D. АПИЛИ
Moscow State University, early 1950s STUDYING LAW BUT AIMING AT POLITICS
Moscow, 1954 WEDDING NIGHT, THEN SEPARATE ROOMS
28
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
happens, the regular Thursday Politburo meet-
lock onto a listener's. The eyes, he once told an
ing runs into the evening.
audience in Prague, never lie. Much of his ani-
While Gorbachev's working schedule does
mation comes through even in translation. In a
not seem to be overly taxing, he recently an-
TV interview, for example, he may pause reflec-
swered an Italian interviewer's question as to
tively after a question, start an answer with a few
how he spends his free time by saying simply, "I
slow phrases, then burst into a torrent of words
have none." He is, however, an avid theatergoer.
that an interpreter can barely keep up with.
In Stavropol he and Raisa attended not only ev-
Such skills have served Gorbachev well in his
ery play that opened but also many dress re-
33 months in office. Though he grumbles about
hearsals. In Moscow, while preparing for the
opposition to his policies from a bureaucracy that
Washington summit, they found time to take in
"does not want change and does not want to lose
The Peace of Brest, a historical drama about Le-
some rights associated with privileges," he has
nin's early years in power that opened Nov. 30.
consolidated his power rapidly. He has thorough-
ly purged the ranks of the Politburo, the Central
he Gorbachevs have a daughter
Committee and government ministries of leaders
T
Irina, 28, who is a physician and
judged to be incompetent or dragging their feet on
married to another doctor, and
reform. More than half of all government minis-
two known grandchildren. The
ters and 44% of party Central Committee mem-
extent to which the Gorbachevs
bers have been replaced since he took over.
guard their family privacy can be
Gorbachev's idea. of glasnost stops well
gauged by some of the things that
short of Western-style artistic and journalistic
are not known for sure: Irina's married name
freedom. Nonetheless; the policy has gone fur-
(only the first name of her husband, Anatoli, has
ther than anyone would have predicted even a
been disclosed); the granddaughter's name (it
few years ago, winning Gorbachev the enthusi-
has been reported as both Oksana and Xenia);
astic approval of intellectuals. Says Vitali Koro-
her age (probably seven); and the sex and name
tich, editor of Ogonyok, an illustrated weekly
of a second grandchild (Gorbachev proudly told
that has published hard-hitting articles about
former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who visit-
social problems as well as anthologies of long-
ed Moscow last summer, that one had just been
suppressed poetry: "This is an evening of danc-
born, but would disclose no more than that).
ing in a society that has never danced."
Gorbachev retains his ties to Privolnoye, go-
Perestroika, however, is still more platitude
ing to see his mother there at least once a year.
than policy. Gorbachev confessed in June that
On one trip to Stavropol in 1982, Gorbachev, by
"despite tremendous efforts, the restructuring
then a member of the Politburo, talked with aged
drive has in actual fact not reached many local-
collective farmers, who complained about their
ities." In particular, agricultural reforms designed
low pensions of 36 rubles ($49.30) a month. "I
to give farmers more incentive, which Gorbachev
know my mother also receives 36 rubles, but she
began experimenting with back in Stavropol and
keeps chickens and a cow; why don't you?" Gor-
for which he supposedly won Politburo approval
bachev replied. (Nonetheless, back in Moscow,
as long ago as 1983, have yet to be put into effect
he saw to it that pensions were increased.) Maria
nationwide. Meanwhile, the economy continues
Panteleyevna regularly attends Russian Ortho-
to fall behind those of the West. As recently as
dox Church services, and there are reports that
1975, the Soviet economy was about 58% as large
she had Gorbachev baptized. Gorbachev has
as its U.S. counterpart. But by 1984 that figure
said that his grandparents kept icons in their
had fallen to 54%, and the gap is probably still
home, hiding them behind pictures of Lenin and
growing. With his usual hard-boiled realism,
Stalin, and once took him to church. He added,
Gorbachev told the Central Committee shortly
though, that he had no desire to go back. Offi-
before becoming General Secretary, "We cannot
cially, at least, he is an atheist whose occasional
remain a major power in world affairs unless we
references to God are probably no more than an
put our domestic house in order."
unconscious repetition of phrases common in
At best, it will take years before Gorbachev's
the rural Russia of his boyhood.
program of freeing industry from Moscow's sti-
As a law student, Gorbachev received some
fling central control results in any significant in-
practical training in oratory. That, plus a natu-
crease in the quantity and quality of goods reach-
ral flair for speaking, has produced a man who
ing Soviet consumers. Gorbachev complains
is considered the finest orator of any Soviet
that "Soviet rockets can find Halley's comet and
leader since Lenin (who was also trained as a
fly to Venus with amazing accuracy, but
lawyer). Gorbachev's phraseology is not re-
many household appliances are of poor quality."
markable, or at least does not read well in trans-
The Soviet leader may be hard put to maintain
lation. The English version of Perestroika, pub-
the popular support he is counting on to over-
lished in the U.S. just before the December
come bureaucratic lethargy and opposition.
MARIA PANTELYEVNA
summit, is blandly general. But in a Gorbachev
Gauging public opinion in the U.S.S.R. is a high-
GORBACHEV, C. 1987, TOP; HER
speech, as TV viewers around the world have
ly uncertain art, but letters to the Soviet press of-
HUSBAND SERGEI, LATE 1940S,
discovered, phrases that seem flat on the print-
ten approve the idea of perestroika while simul-
MIDDLE; MIKHAIL AT AGE 19
ed page suddenly come to life.
taneously complaining that the writers have not
Russian is a language spoken with the
seen much of it yet. Some polls disclose consider-
hands, the eyebrows, an occasional shake of the
able grumbling that perestroika has so far meant
head from side to side or a shrug of the shoulders.
only harder work for little measurable reward.
Gorbachev has mastered those gestures, and
Consumers may soon have to pay more for some
more. He may slice the air with a modified kara-
of the necessities of life if Gorbachev follows
te chop or spin his hands one over the other like a
through on his plan to trim or eliminate many
pinwheel, then extend them palms up in a ges-
state subsidies. The Kremlin boss rightly com-
ture of vulnerability, only to clench them into
plains that the subsidies on bread, for example,
fists a moment later. All the time his intense eyes
make it so cheap that children sometimes use
TIME. JANUARY 4, 1988
29
My impression is that he thinks there are whole
RICHARDSON STEIRMAN
towns that are just sort of destitute." Eugene
Whelan, the former Canadian Agriculture Min-
ister who was later Gorbachev's host in North
America, also visited him in 1981 and got into
an argument about armaments. Says Whelan:
"He was going on about how the U.S. was the
aggressor, how it was making weapons. He said
the U.S. was returning to the conditions of the
1950s." When Whelan remonstrated that in the
American view it was the Soviet Union that had
piled up weapons far beyond any legitimate de-
fense needs; Gorbachev brusquely responded,
"That is erroneous."
t Chernenko's funeral in 1985,
A
Gorbachev encountered Ar-
mand Hammer, the American
businessman who has been
trading with the Soviets since
Lenin's day, and denounced
Ronald Reagan to him as a
man who wanted war. He mellowed after meet-
ing the U.S. President later that year at their
first summit in Geneva, and today speaks re-
spectfully of Reagan. Still, when Hammer
called at the Kremlin in 1986, Gorbachev told
him, "Your President couldn't make peace if he
wanted to. He's a prisoner of the military-indus-
trial complex," which in Gorbachev's mind
seems to be both all powerful and moved by an
implacable hostility to the Soviets. Hammer
tried to dissuade him but got nowhere, largely,
he suspects, because Gorbachev had been put in
On Vacation, 1986
AS
HE
TOLD
AN
INTERVIEWER,
"I
HAVE
NO
FREE
TIME."
a defensive mood by U.S. and other foreign crit-
icism of his handling of the 1986 Chernobyl nu-
clear-plant accident. Says Hammer: "Gorba-
loaves as footballs. But a higher price for bread,
chev's weakness is that he has a temper, and
while it might be fully justified by production
that he flares up, and that he has a lot of pride,
costs, is likely to cause strong discontent.
of course, and self-confidence." The Soviet lead-
Gorbachev acknowledges that his antialco-
er has generally managed to keep his temper
hol campaign is highly unpopular. He once told
under control in public. Indeed, friends and op-
a group of writers that he was aware of
ponents agree that he is almost invariably po-
"Like
"threats" as well as grumbling from the long
lite. But he does blow up now and then-espe-
lines of people queueing up to buy scarce and
cially, as foreign TV viewers have discovered,
mountain
expensive vodka. One gag has a man at the end
when he is questioned sharply about the Soviet
of one of the liquor-store lines announcing that
Union's human-rights record.
climbers on
he is so furious he is going over to the Kremlin
Gorbachev, however, need not admire
to shoot Gorbachev. He returns in a few min-
Americans in order to live peaceably with them.
one rope, the
utes, however, and resumes his place in the
Nor is it necessary for the U.S. to enroll in a Gor-
queue. "Well, did you do it?" asks a comrade.
bachev personality cult in order to recognize the
world's
"You must be joking," the would-be assassin re-
Soviet leader as being a figure of hope, for all his
plies. "The line over there is even longer."
nations can
contradictions. His upbringing, schooling and
In foreign policy too, Gorbachev's approach
rise to power have produced a man of immense
either climb
is a mixture of much touted "new thinking" and
incongruities, stubborn and flexible, a faithful
dismayingly old reflexes. Despite his flexibility
ideologue and a radical experimenter.
together to
in the realm of superpower relations, he main-
He could be the most dangerous adversary
tains some strange attitudes about the U.S. By
the U.S. and its allies have faced in decades-or
the summit or
his own account, he began reading American
the most constructive. Molded by famine and
history as a law student, and he has kept himself
war, promised a measure of hope after Stalin's
fall together
remarkably well informed. In recent interviews
demise and then abruptly disillusioned, Gorba-
he has referred offhandedly to matters, such as
chev is not the sort of man who would willingly
into the
Ronald Reagan's "economic bill of rights," that
drag his country back into the dark days of re-
are not widely known even to U.S. citizens.
pression, economic hardship and international
abyss.'
Nonetheless, he seems to have a streak of
obloquy. If there is a lesson in the 56-year edu-
what can only be described as anti-American-
cation of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, it is
On a visit to Prague,
ism. Perhaps the first American to have an ex-
that a new, unfamiliar kind of leader has risen
April 10, 1987
tended conversation with him was John Chrys-
in the Soviet Union, and that the old rules of
tal, chairman of Bankers Trust of Des Moines
dealing with that long-suffering land are sud-
and a frequent traveler to the Soviet Union, who
denly outdated. For the West, the education is
called on Gorbachev in 1981. Says Chrystal:
just beginning.
-By George J. Church.
"He does believe, never having been here, that
Reported by David Aikman/Washington, James 0.
the U.S. has abject poverty and quite a lot of it.
Jackson/Moscow and John Kohan/Stavropol
30
TIME, JANUARY 4, 1988
The Rise and
Rise of Raisa
RUDI FREY
A different kind of wife
ikhail and Raisa Gorbachev were din-
M
ing with Margaret and Denis Thatcher
during their 1984 visit to Britain, and
the talk got around to the working class. In his
country, the Soviet leader-to-be asserted, "we
are all working class."
"No, we are not," his wife objected. "You are
a lawyer." Gorbachev conceded, "Perhaps you
are right. Perhaps it is just a sociological term."
That exchange has never been reported in
the Soviet Union, nor was Gorbachev's confir-
mation to Tom Brokaw last month that he dis-
cussed "Soviet affairs at the highest level" with
Raisa. If it were known that Raisa had once
contradicted her husband before a foreign lead-
er-well, that could only add to the whispered
accusations that Raisa Maximovna Gorbachev,
55, is guilty of conduct unbecoming a Soviet
wife. In a land where women have full equality
under the law but where a husband has the last
word, Raisa has become a widely respected but
occasionally resented figure. To a Westerner,
that attitude is hard to understand. So what if
Raisa dresses stylishly, accompanies her hus-
band on official travels in the Soviet Union and
abroad and even makes some appearances on
her own? So what if she is involved in public pol-
icy to the extent of helping to create a fund to
encourage the development of young people in
the arts? The problem is that the Soviets are ac-
customed to leaders' wives who are retiring to
the point of invisibility. The outside world did
not even know that Tatyana Andropov existed
until she attended her husband's 1984 funeral.
Consequently, to some people Raisa's high pro-
file seems mildly scandalous. When she accom-
panied Gorbachev to the 1986 Reykjavík sum-
mit with Ronald Reagan (Nancy stayed home),
Iceland, 1986 TURNING ON THE CHARM AT THE REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT
a Soviet Foreign Ministry official griped, "Who
chose her to represent the Soviet Union?" A
nying Mikhail to cultural performances and dis-
young Moscow professional woman complains
playing a command of foreign books. During the
that on a Gorbachev visit in September to the
December summit she told Joyce Carol Oates
port city of Murmansk, Raisa was seen in two
that she had read the novelist's book Angel of
different outfits the same day: "That may be
Light and said it was well liked in the U.S.S.R.
O.K. for Paris, but not for Murmansk, where
Raisa became something of a pioneer in So-
people get meat and butter only once a month."
viet sociological research during her Stavropol
Raisa is rarely mentioned by name in the
days. She won the equivalent of a Ph.D. in 1967
Soviet press. She was born in the Siberian town
with a dissertation on the lives of collective farm-
of Rubtsovsk in Altai Krai, though she told re-
ers, using methods that were then unconvention-
porters at a parade in Moscow last month that
al in the Soviet Union. She sent out question-
she is "absolutely Russian." According to her of-
naires that drew more than 3,000 replies and
ficial biography, her father was a railway engi-
conducted follow-up interviews at five collec-
neer. Raisa's chosen profession is teaching.
tives. The work reportedly decried the peasants'
When the newly married Gorbachevs moved to
bleak living conditions, as well as their fondness
Stavropol in 1955, Raisa found a job at a local
for such religious festivals as Christmas and Eas-
school and continued to teach for the next 23
ter. That latter attitude evidently endures. Mi-
years. When her husband was summoned back
khail once observed that "she is the atheist" of
to Moscow in 1978 to take charge of Soviet agri-
the couple. Foreigners who have talked with
culture, Raisa became a lecturer in Marxist-
Raisa describe her as a more dogmatic Marxist
Leninist philosophy at Moscow State Universi-
than her husband. At least she knows what the
ty. Though she gave up the post after Gorbachev
working class is-and that she and Mikhail are
became General Secretary in 1985, she evident-
not members. -By George J. Church. Reported by
ly remains very much the intellectual, accompa-
David Aikman/Washington and Ann Blackman/Moscow
TIME. JANUARY 4, 1988
31
Soviet Embassy
328-3225
music
closing Tchaicousky Contest
Moscow- - 4 yrs ago June