Word: raisa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...democratization) and perestroika (restructuring) have become the watchwords of a bold attempt to modernize his country's creaky economic machinery and revitalize a society stultified by 70 years of totalitarian rule. In televised addresses, speeches to the party faithful and flesh- pressing public appearances -- often with his handsome wife Raisa -- he has spread his gospel of modernization. Translating his words into action, he is streamlining the government bureaucracy, reshuffling the military, moving reform-minded allies into the party leadership and allowing multicandidate elections at the local level. He has loosened restrictions on small-scale free enterprise and introduced the profit...
Yakovlev is also regarded as the behind-the-scenes choreographer of the successful Mikhail and Raisa road show. He accompanied the Gorbachevs on their first official foreign trip -- to London in 1984 -- and then to Geneva and Reykjavik. The payoff has been measurable. "Look what has been happening in West European attitudes toward the Soviet Union," said a diplomatic specialist on Soviet propaganda. "The opinion polls tell you why Yakovlev was promoted...
...last week as the Soviets conducted their first experiment in multicandidate balloting. In 5% of the country's roughly 52,000 districts, voters chose from a list of candidates that exceeded the number of available posts. Ironically, Gorbachev was not among that privileged handful. When he and his wife Raisa went to vote at Precinct No. 5 in central Moscow, their ballots offered no choice...
MIKHAIL TURNED and at once broke into a smile. "Rutger!" He cautioned me with a finger to his lips. "You must be careful. Raisa knows all about that nightclub in Reykjavik. She has spies everywhere." He handed me a big furry hat, a fake moustache, and a Politburo I.D. badge. "Better wear these...
That's when Raisa came up and found...