Word: husbanded
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Attractive, cultured and correctly attuned ideologically, Raisa Gorbachev was the model of the modern Soviet woman and an asset to her husband as he entertained Moscow dignitaries vacationing in the spas near Stavropol. Among them was Yuri Andropov, then chief of the KGB, who eventually became Mikhail's mentor. In 1978 Mikhail Gorbachev was promoted to Party Secretary for Agriculture, and the couple finally returned to Moscow. By 1985 Mikhail was General Secretary of the party and the leader of the Soviet Union. Spotting a photograph of Andropov in Washington last year, Raisa said, "We owe everything...
...abroad as First Lady, Raisa jokingly said to Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the French President, "Give me some advice. I'm a beginner at this job." She learned fast, and quickly became a hit in the West. In Washington, accompanied by Van Cliburn on the piano, she and her husband made White House guests smile by leading the Soviet delegation in a rendition of a sentimental Russian favorite, Moscow Nights...
...visit to Czechoslovakia in 1987, Raisa kept behind Mikhail and conscientiously repeated, "Thank you so much for coming," as they worked the crowd. In Prague she noticed that the General Secretary was about to overlook a young boy. "Mikhail Sergeyevich," she said in her high-pitched voice. Her husband turned around, greeted the child and invited him to Moscow. Her thoroughness can be irritating too. At a State Department lunch in Washington, Raisa upset Secretary of State George Shultz by having a brief conversation with each of the 180 people on the receiving line. Lunch was delayed for hours...
...because I think women should take a more active role in our society," says a young woman named Anna in Moscow. "But she must use more common sense. She goes to a factory wearing furs. That's bad taste. She's showing off, and it doesn't help her husband's public image...
Which Raisa will appear at the summit, the vivacious woman who chats up Western reporters abroad or the more modest one who stays in the background on her husband's tours of Soviet factories and collective farms? At a time when Gorbachev's reform efforts are still facing opposition from hard-liners, obstructionist bureaucrats and skeptical workers, the General Secretary is likely to tread softly. But he has not given up on pushing his wife forward, perhaps to demonstrate in the most personal terms that he is intent on improving the lot of women. Since 1987, for example...