Word: raisa
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...since Czar Nicholas wed Alexandra in 1894 have Russians encountered a ruler's wife with such presence, such personality, such promise as a subject of mild jokes and elevated eyebrows as Raisa Gorbachev. She is the first spouse of a Soviet leader to weigh less than he does, acid tongues have it in Moscow, and the first "Czarina," as some of her fellow citizens mock her, to appear in the Kremlin since the fall of the Romanovs. She is also the first Soviet First Lady to use an American Express card and, as a member of the board...
...suddenly, there is Mikhail and Raisa, a pair who can hold their own in the international journalistic sweepstakes vis-a-vis Ron and Nancy and, given the Gorbachevs' comparative youth (he is 57, she 56) and the Soviet political system, who will probably outlast George and Barbara or Mike and Kitty. The Western press trembles with anticipation...
...Raisa. Even in this semienlightened age, prominent women are somehow reduced to first names: Maggie, Cory, Nancy. Yet, despite her visibility, Raisa Gorbachev remains a riddle inside an enigma wrapped in sable. Is she the witty, cosmopolitan muse of glasnost, as some Westerners who have met her suggest? Or is she a hard-line ideologue, as others report? At a dinner with ^ the Reagans during the 1985 Geneva summit, Raisa launched into a lengthy and pedantic monologue on Soviet policy. After the Gorbachevs left, Nancy Reagan may have spoken for the other guests when she fumed, within hearing of then...
There seem to be several Raisas. Most prominent these days is the "Nemesis of Nancy." The First Ladies' little cold war has been the stuff of tabloid headlines ever since Mrs. Gorbachev upstaged Mrs. Reagan by arriving unexpectedly at the 1986 Reykjavik summit (Nancy stayed home). "I missed you in Reykjavik," Raisa said when the two met in Washington last December. Nancy replied icily, "I was told women weren't invited...
...Nancy, who was recovering from breast-cancer surgery and mourning the recent death of her mother. "Their face-off was extraordinary," said one who saw the pair in action. "They didn't seem to understand each other." As a result, Nancy decided to tour Leningrad this week only if Raisa did not come along. Instead, Mrs. Reagan's official escort will be Soviet President Andrei Gromyko's wife Lidiya. Perhaps compatibility charts should have been drawn: Raisa, a Capricorn ("overexacting, rigid"), vs. Nancy, a Cancer ("touchy, unforgiving...