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Mikhail Gorbachev was buried on Saturday in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery, where he was once again with his wife Raisa, with whom he shared a markedly intimate and full of life on the world stage. Love marriage. Soviet leader unprecedented.
“They were a real couple. She was part of him, almost always by his side,” then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said at Raisa’s funeral in 1999, where Gorbachev was Cry publicly. “Most of what he has accomplished is unimaginable without his wife.”
Gorbachev’s public devotion to his family shattered the stereotypes of former Soviet leaders, as did his openness to political reform.
“He loves a woman more than his job. I don’t think he would be able to hug her if his hands were covered in blood,” said German, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and editor of Russia’s leading independent newspaper, the New Gazette. Mitri Muratov wrote. Co-owned by Gorbachev, it was forced to close under official pressure after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
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“We should always remember,” Muratov continued, “that he loved women more than work, that he put human rights above the state, and that he valued the sky of peace more than individual power.”
Gorbachev’s public attachment to his family also contrasts with the secrecy surrounding the private life of President Vladimir Putin, the current leader of Russia.
For her part, Raisa Gorbachova created a bold image for the first lady of the Soviet Union—more striking, direct-speaking, elegant, and stylishly dressed. A trained sociologist, she met Mikhail at a university in Moscow, where they both studied.
“One day, we held each other’s hands and went for a walk at night. We walked like this all our lives,” Gorbachev told Vogue in 2013. Raisa travels with him, and they discuss policy and politics together.
Her assertive demeanor and prominent public role displeased many Russians, who were also unhappy with Gorbachev and blamed his policies for the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the couple won sympathy in 1999, when news broke that Raisa had died of leukemia. With her husband talking to TV reporters every day, the sometimes grandiose-sounding politician was suddenly seen as an emotional, grieving family man.
For more than two decades after her departure, Gorbachev kept Raisa’s memory alive and accepted his identity as a lonely widower.
In 2009, he released a CD containing seven romantic songs, “Songs for Raisa”, with famous Russian musician and guitarist Andrei Makarevich. Sales go to a charity Raisa founded. A few years later, he published a book dedicated to her, Alone.
Their marriage has even been the subject of the popular Moscow drama “Gorbachev” in 2021. Its views are noteworthy for Russia: the country’s leader is one who prioritizes family, friends and personal obligations. One scene recounts a pivotal moment in Gorbachev’s career when he returned to Moscow after a failed communist coup in 1991. Raisa had a stroke, and instead of returning to the political arena immediately, he went to the hospital to accompany her.
“I am not married to this country – Russia or the Soviet Union,” Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs. “My wife and I got married, and I went to the hospital with her that night.”
In the Moscow cemetery, a life-size statue of Raisa has stood over the graves for the two of them for years.
Gorbachev had a daughter Irina, two granddaughters and a great-granddaughter. Despite his attachment to his family, Gorbachev spent his life in Russia while they lived in Germany.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an early post-Soviet businessman now living in exile in London, tweeted this week that one of Gorbachev’s big advantages is He was able to remove “awe of those who were on the throne,” and his focus on family was part of that.
“With this, he changed my life. And his attitude towards Raisa Maksimovna – that’s the second big lesson,” Khodorkovsky said of Gorbachev Baby’s father’s name said. “He went to her. Rest in peace.”
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