Years of life: 1932 - 1999
The life of this woman has always been in the spotlight. Her appearance in public as the first lady in the country was condemned by many. However, in the West, Raisa Gorbacheva made a real revolution, showing the whole world what a Soviet woman could look like...
The wife of the future President of the USSR Raisa Titarenko was born on January 5, 1932 in the city of Rubtsovsk. Altai Territory in the family of a railway engineer.
In 1949, Raisa, graduating with a gold medal high school, came to Moscow and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Here, in the hostel, her first meeting with the future Komsomol leader Misha Gorbachev took place.
Mikhail Gorbachev recalled years later with a peculiarity characteristic of his speech: “Then it was a craze to learn ballroom dancing. In the foyer of the club once or twice a week they learned. The guys from the room told me: Mishka, there is such a girl! .. I went, saw and began to pursue. I'm in my second year, she's in her third. I’m twenty, she’s nineteen… She had a personal drama, her parents interfered in the relationship, she was in a quarrel, worried and was disappointed… My harassment was met coldly… We walked side by side for six months, holding hands. Then a year and a half - when they no longer only held hands. But still, they became husband and wife after the wedding.
She did not ask for parental blessings for marriage with Gorbachev, notifying her mother and father at the last moment. The wedding turned out to be student, without wedding rings. But the suit and dress on the bride and groom were completely new - Mikhail earned money for them on a combine. The future Secretary General that summer went to conquer the virgin lands.
“It is difficult to say how his fate would have developed if he had not married Raisa,” Valery Boldin, an assistant to Gorbachev during his presidency, writes in his book, published in America. “The attitude to the outside world and the character of his wife played a decisive role in his fate and, I am sure, to a significant extent affected the fate of the party and the whole country.”
After graduating from university, Raisa entered graduate school, but Gorbachev refused an offer to work in Moscow, and the couple left for Stavropol, her husband's homeland, where she was to live for twenty-three years. In his specialty, Gorbachev worked in the prosecutor's office for exactly ten days, and then went to public work and soon took the post of first secretary of the Komsomol city committee.
In 1957, after the birth of their daughter Irina, the Gorbachevs were given two rooms in a communal flat. They moved to a separate apartment shortly before, in April 1970, Mikhail Sergeevich became the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU. His wife then taught philosophy and sociology at the institute.
As political scientists emphasize, when after sudden death As another member of the Central Committee in the Kremlin, the only place that Gorbachev, with his narrow specialization, could claim - the post of Secretary of the Central Committee for Agriculture - was vacated - Mikhail Sergeevich found himself in Moscow, jumping over several career steps at once. So in November 1978, the family was again in the capital. At first, the Gorbachevs lived in the state dacha, where Sergo Ordzhonikidze once lived. Then they got an apartment, and two years later - a new cottage.
With Andropov
When her husband became the head of state, Raisa was terribly worried and asked Mikhail Sergeyevich how she should behave now. “Nothing has changed for us,” he replied. "Behave like before." But "as before" did not work anymore ...
“Her activity, luxurious toilets - all this was too defiant,” says historian Roy Medvedev. “Gorbachev’s behavior harmed her husband as well - the irritation of the people spread to him.”
With Ronald and Nancy Reagan
And indeed: barely appearing on television, Raisa Maksimovna aroused persistent curiosity among men and sharp hostility among most women of the entire Soviet Union. People actually felt that she changed outfits too often, too aggressively “climbs into the frame” and talks too much (and slowly!) She was also not forgiven for her mentor teaching manner of proclaiming long-known common truths.
“There are a lot of myths and conjectures about some of my extraordinary predilection for villas, summer cottages, luxurious outfits, jewelry,” Raisa Maksimovna was surprised. “I didn’t sew either with Zaitsev, as he hinted in his interviews, or with Yves Saint Laurent, as the journalists claimed ... I was dressed by female craftsmen from the atelier on Kuznetsky Most ... "
However, claims to clothing are not the only ones presented to Raisa Maksimovna. V. Boldin writes in his book that the KGB, at the request of the wife of the first leader of the country, selected for her a staff of servants, which was supposed to consist of silent, hard-working women no younger and no more attractive than Raisa Maksimovna herself.
Before the era of Gorbachev, Valentina Tereshkova, as a rule, met with the wives of presidents, prime ministers, kings and other high-ranking persons who came on visits to the USSR. She was able to find mutual language with any person. They say that Raisa Maksimovna did not like the position of the leader and the authority of Tereshkova. Only she began to perform these functions - the first lady should, of course, be in the spotlight.
Be that as it may, but the first lady of the USSR broke the tradition, by virtue of which the wives of the highest Soviet leaders remained behind the scenes public life. She stood at the origins of the Soviet Cultural Fund, created in the late 1980s. It was with her support and direct participation that his numerous cultural programs were carried out. She managed to convince everyone that the Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva is simply necessary. She was also engaged in charitable activities, was the honorary chairman of the international association "Hematologists of the World for Children", personally patronized the Central Children's Clinical Hospital in Moscow. In 1997 she created the Club, which became her last hobby and social cause. main goal Club was a discussion of social problems: the role of women in modern Russia, the position of vulnerable segments of society, especially children.
Undoubtedly, Gorbacheva's personality aroused great interest abroad as well. At the moment of her appearance on the political horizon, foreign newspapers were full of headlines: “The only one of the Kremlin wives who weighs less than her husband!”; "Communist lady with Parisian chic!" Subsequent events showed that interest in the first lady of the USSR did not weaken over the years. In 1988, Raisa Gorbacheva was awarded the "Women of the World" award, in 1991 - the "Lady of the Year" award. It was noted that the wife of the President of the USSR acted in the eyes of the world community as a "messenger of peace", and her strong support for Gorbachev's plans was also emphasized.
Since his retirement, Gorbachev has written six books. In the West, many of them became bestsellers, while in Russia they were almost never published. The books demanded painstaking work: every figure, every fact is verified and confirmed by archival documents. A large share of the rough work was done, again, by Raisa Maksimovna.
... After the Belovezhskaya collusion and Gorbachev's voluntary resignation, she disappeared from the field of view of the general public. The Gorbachevs lived in a dacha that the Russian government granted the President of the USSR for life use. In his book Life and Reforms, Mikhail Sergeevich wrote that his wife had been ill for two months: the consequences of Foros and the post-Foros events in the country had an effect. According to some information, it is known that Raisa Maksimovna suffered a stroke in Foros, which caused paralysis of her arm and half of her face. And shortly before her death, she told her husband: “Yes, I probably had to get such a serious illness and die so that people would understand us.”
Gorbachev died of leukemia, a blood cancer, when she was 67 years old. Perhaps, scientists believe, this is the indirect fault of those who conducted tests at the Semipalatinsk test site in 1949. Then a radioactive cloud covered native city Raisa Maksimovna - Rubtsovsk. Since then, leukemia has been the most common disease in the Altai Territory.
Doctors know that it is, alas, easy to “oversee” this disease: the patient begins to feel weakness, loss of strength, the temperature rises slightly, which is usually perceived in the home circle as symptoms of overwork or a cold. And only a sufficiently detailed analysis reveals the so-called “shift” in the blood formula: individually, all indicators are more or less within the normal range, and the overall picture requires immediate hospitalization of the patient and the start of a course of treatment.
The decision to treat Raisa Maksimovna in Munster was taken jointly by Russian and German doctors, with full mutual consent. And so it turned out that recent months she spent her life in Germany, at the clinic of the University of Westphalia under the supervision of Professor Thomas Buchner, one of the leading hematologists and oncologists in Europe.
With Estee Lauder
“To be completely honest, the likelihood of a successful outcome was low,” he admitted. - At first, she was prescribed chemotherapy, after which we hoped to do a bone marrow transplant. The donor was supposed to be Lyudmila Titarenko, her Native sister. But during chemotherapy, immunity is sharply reduced and the risk of infection increases. Raisa Maksimovna had just such a case. At one time she began to recover sharply, and we hoped that a life-saving operation could be carried out soon. But suddenly she felt worse - she fell into a coma. She died without ever regaining consciousness.
With daughter and granddaughter
Having received the terrible news, Gorbachev spent the whole morning in his room, coming to his senses and deciding what to do next. Probably the most difficult thing for him in recent days was that Raisa Maksimovna was unconscious, and he could not say even a word to her.
On the anniversary of the death of the first lady of the USSR, the Vagrius publishing house published the book "Raisa", compiled from diaries, interviews, articles, a large number of letters and telegrams that flowed like a river to the Gorbachev family in the last days of Raisa Maksimovna ...
With daughter and granddaughters
“I didn’t touch, and even now I almost don’t touch the office, as it was under Rais,” Mikhail Sergeevich admits. We had a large room separated by a wall. I worked in one part, and Raisa Maksimovna in the other. When I finally came to my senses, I discovered that the table, the window sills in her office were all covered in papers. She started working on the book. I found the blueprint for this book. Thirty-three chapters. And the title is written with a red pen: "What the heart hurts about." I started looking, flipping through, and, my God, I felt that it was probably my fault that she had passed away. So load with trials an impressionable, very responsible person, vulnerable to injustice ... "
Visiting Barbara Bush
“I constantly observe how completely strangers stop and stand for a long time at the grave of Raisa Maksimovna,” says Galina Vasilyeva, head of the Novodevichy cemetery. - This woman had some kind of attractive force ... Very often the Gorbachevs come with the whole family and stand sad for a long time. Mikhail Sergeevich takes care of the grave himself. And he never asks us for anything. Probably can't trust this to a stranger."
“It has been a long time since she was gone, but the grief has not diminished,” admits the former president of the USSR. “It has only become dull, but not weakened.”
Raisa Maksimovna often comes to him in a dream: he hears a phone call, picks up the phone, and this is her! "Where are you from?" - Mikhail Sergeevich invariably asks. But no response...
The funeral
Text by E. N. Oboymina and O. V. Tatkova
01 The position of the First Lady in the USSR did not exist, not only by definition - despite all the slogans about female-male equality, Russian women were not allowed to big politics. So, in the presidium with a lean look to sit, no more. But still, most of the first persons of the Soviet state had life partners. Well, we briefly figured out the Leader of the Nations. Then there was Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva, then Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva. Both of them appeared in public as First Ladies only occasionally, when it was impossible otherwise. And thank God, to be honest. Photo by N.P. Khrushchev next to Jacqueline Kennedy went around the world and hardly contributed to improving the image of our country. But Nina Petrovna was a very intelligent, well-educated and strong-willed lady. But here's the look ... hmm. The same can be said about Victoria Petrovna, who was not interested in politics, did not get involved in her husband's affairs, but rather put things in order in the Kremlin kitchen, for which many human thanks to her. In fact, often and quite successfully, the role of the First Lady of the USSR was played by the now living Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who only became more attractive and elegant with age.
But the Soviet times have sunk into oblivion. We turned to face the West, and we needed a real First Lady, a modern model, glamorous, independent and self-confident. And we got one. Her name was Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva.
She was born on January 5, 1932 in Russian hinterland, Altai Territory, in the family of a railway engineer. So she, her siblings, had good starting opportunities, and they all took advantage of them well. Despite the fact that, due to her father's profession, the family often moved, Raisa Titarenko graduated from school with a gold medal and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Her future husband, Mikhail Gorbachev, also studied there (by the way, a school silver medalist), who successfully mastered the craft of a lawyer.
... Rotating, due to family ties, among persons of a certain position, the author of these lines heard a certain tale - as if the young Mikhail Sergeyevich had another sweetheart before the pretty, smiling Raechka. That girl allegedly did not accept the courtship of the provincial with a characteristic accent, declaring that "he will not move further than the chairman of the collective farm." But the smart Raya Titarenko did not think so, took the situation into her own hands and, you see, did not lose.
It's no secret that the Gorbachev couple, who have been together since 1953, were connected by deep love, tender and reverent, which they never hid (but in no case advertised!). The young people left for the Stavropol Territory, where Mikhail Sergeevich was assigned, and Raisa Maksimovna had to leave full-time graduate school. In 1957, their daughter Irina was born, and the young family lived modestly even by the standards of those times, in a rented room, only on the salary of the head of the family, a Komsomol worker. Raisa Gorbacheva herself worked here and there - there was no permanent job for the metropolitan training of a philosopher and sociologist, but it is true they say - whoever wants, he is looking for a way, who does not want - he is looking for a reason. She gives lectures from the Knowledge Society, teaches at the Stavropol Agricultural and Medical Institute, collects material for her dissertation, in a word, is always in business.
“Her example is a science to others” - to love her husband and, living in his interests, not to dissolve in him without sediment (as other “theorists” of gender relations demand from women), to be his support, but also to remain a thinking, active person herself ... Worthy of emulation! In 1967, Raisa Maksimovna defended her dissertation, based on vital material collected on trips to that agricultural region, which was led by her husband. In the same year he received a diploma of the second higher education- they, one might say, walked in parallel courses and at the same speed.
Family life changed dramatically at the end of the stagnant 70s, when MS Gorbachev, who had been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1971, was transferred to work in Moscow, already the secretary of the Central Committee. Even the Kremlin elders, far from the realities of life and the people, it was clear that the authorities needed to be updated. This nation breathed a sigh of relief when, after a tragicomic series of three brief reigns, in 1985, a young, only 54-year-old Secretary General Gorbachev came to power. So Raisa Maksimovna actually became the First Lady of the USSR.
And here the problems began. She was ready to play this role. But to see her in this role - or someone else, it does not matter - the population of the country was not ready.
Why is she always with him? What does she need? - both women and men asked irritably, seeing in the chronicle Raisa Maksimovna next to her husband. Arguments like the fact that the wife of the head of state is an official position, and not marital status, simply did not reach the consciousness of the public. No one wanted to understand that the diplomatic protocol developed over the centuries prescribes the presence of a spouse next to the heads of state in almost all events. Otherwise, there is confusion, unnecessary rumors and discussions in the yellow press. And the outfits on the ladies should be special, determined by the tradition of such events, because the First Lady is, if you like, the face of the country. And Gorbachev was accused of some kind of insane luxury, which never existed ... And how was the First Lady of the richest state supposed to dress?! In a faded flannelette robe?
People were annoyed by her mentoring tone, which she spoke in public - “Why does she teach everyone ?!”. But she really taught all her life - this is her job, her second nature, why not? Raisa Maksimovna was smart, well educated and aware of the situation in the country. She had something to say. Maybe they envied her natural grace, innate secularity, the ability to deftly wear suits? Can't be ruled out. Well, and the main subject of fierce woman's envy - a handsome, loving, non-drinking (!!!) husband - but who in Russia would forgive such a thing ?!
Among the things she did by “abusing” her marital status Raisa Maksimovna, is the creation of the Culture Fund (1986), support and creation of new museums, charity. Then, in the dashing 90s, they forgot about the Gorbachev couple - it was not before that ... And they remembered only in 1999, when she became seriously ill. Perhaps the long-term stay near the nuclear test zone affected. That's when, against the backdrop of the past years and events, the attitude towards Raisa Maksimovna ... no, has not changed. It just bounced back. She was bombarded with letters wishing her a speedy recovery, but…
When, unable to cope with the illness, she left, she was escorted on her last journey with handwritten slogans “Forgive us, Raisa Maksimovna!”. For what? For an unfair attitude, for backward views on the role of the wife of the head of state. It turned out that she never found a replacement for the post of First Lady, even if the companions of the leaders of the countries formed from the fragments of the USSR were quite worthy persons. None of them possessed her grace and charm ...
Whether we like it or not, Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva has remained the First and Last Lady of a power that no longer exists.
Sadly? No. But the fact
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Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva(nee Titarenko; January 5, Rubtsovsk, West Siberian Territory, USSR - September 20, Munster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) - Soviet and Russian public figure, wife of M. S. Gorbachev.
Paternal grandfather Andrei Filippovich Titarenko moved from the village to Chernihiv, was non-partisan, spent four years in prison, worked as a railway worker. Paternal grandmother - Maria Maksimovna Titarenko. Andrei Filippovich and Maria Maksimovna had three children: two daughters and a son. Andrei Filippovich was put on a heart stimulator, but this did not prolong his life, he died during a walk, and was buried in Krasnodar.
Maternal grandfather Pyotr Stepanovich Parada (1890-1937) - was a wealthy peasant, had six children, four survived: son Alexander Parada (he worked as an economist, died at 26), son Ivan Parada and daughter Alexander. Grandfather was shot as a Trotskyist, as he opposed collectivization and the Stakhanov movement, posthumously rehabilitated in 1988. Maternal grandmother Anastasia Vasilievna Parada - a peasant woman, died of starvation.
Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko was born on January 5, 1932 in Rubtsovsk, West Siberian (now Altai) Territory in the family of railway engineer Maxim Andreevich Titarenko (1907-1986), who came to Altai from the Chernigov province. Mother, Alexandra Petrovna Titarenko (nee Parada; 1913-1991), - a native Siberian, a native of the village. Veseloyarsk, Rubtsovsky District, Altai Territory. Younger brother, writer - Yevgeny Titarenko (b. 1935). Sister - Lyudmila Maksimovna Ayukasova (b. 1938) graduated from the Bashkir Medical Institute, worked as an ophthalmologist in Ufa. During the illness of R. M. Gorbacheva, Lyudmila was ready to become a bone marrow donor for her sister.
The family moved frequently after her railway father, and Raisa spent her childhood in Siberia and the Urals. After graduating with a gold medal from high school number 3 [[K: Wikipedia: Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[C:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] [ ] in the city of Sterlitamak (1949), she arrived in Moscow and was admitted to the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University without examinations (1950). There, in a hostel, she met her future husband Mikhail, who studied at the Faculty of Law.
As Mikhail Gorbachev said in an interview for the press in September 2014, Raisa Maksimovna's first pregnancy in 1954, back in Moscow, due to heart complications after suffering rheumatism, doctors, with his consent, were forced to terminate artificially; the student spouses lost the boy whom his father wanted to name Sergei. In 1955, the Gorbachevs, having completed their studies, moved to the Stavropol Territory, where, with a change in climate, Raisa felt better, and soon the couple gave birth to their only daughter Irina .
After graduating from the university, she entered graduate school, but soon after her husband, who was assigned to the Stavropol prosecutor's office, she moved to the Stavropol Territory. For the first 4 years, R. M. Gorbacheva could not find a job in her specialty, and the family lived on wages husband, Komsomol worker. The Gorbachev family lived in a small rented room in Stavropol, where in 1957 Raisa Maksimovna and Mikhail Sergeevich had a daughter, Irina. In the same year, the family moved into a communal apartment, where they occupied two large rooms.
As the wife of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and later the President of the USSR, she accompanied Gorbachev on his trips, participated in the receptions of foreign delegations who came to Soviet Union, regularly appeared on television, often causing hostility Soviet women, to many of whom it seemed that she changed outfits too often and talked a lot. Before her, as a rule, Valentina Tereshkova met with the wives of dignitaries who came to the USSR.
“There are a lot of myths and conjectures about some of my extraordinary predilection for villas, dachas, luxurious outfits, jewelry,” Raisa Maksimovna was surprised. “I didn’t sew either with Zaitsev, as he hinted in his interviews, or with Yves Saint Laurent, as the journalists claimed ... I was dressed by women masters from the atelier on Kuznetsky Most ... ”.
Claims for outfits were not the only ones that slipped in the press then. The former head of the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and assistant to M. S. Gorbachev, V. I. Boldin, writes in his book “The collapse of the pedestal” about how the KGB was instructed to select a staff of servants for the first lady from silent, hard-working women, no younger and no more attractive than the hostess .
Abroad, Gorbacheva's personality aroused great interest and high marks. So, the British magazine "Woman's Own" named her Woman of the Year (1987), the International Together for Peace Foundation awarded Gorbachev with the "Women for Peace" award, in 1991 - with the "Lady of the Year" award. It was emphasized that the wife of the President of the USSR acted in the eyes of the public as a "messenger of peace", and her active support for the progressive ideas of Gorbachev was noted.
During the years of Gorbachev's presidency, she participated in the work of the board of the Help to the Children of Chernobyl Foundation, patronized the International Charitable Association World Hematologists for Children, and patronized the Central Children's Hospital in Moscow. Gorbachev was promoted to the ranks of active European figures, became the laureate of a number of public awards, an honorary professor at universities in Europe, America, and Asia.
However, the hostility of compatriots and compatriots to Gorbacheva’s lifestyle pursued her until the August putsch of the State Emergency Committee of 1991, when, during the days of the imprisonment of the President of the USSR in Foros, people first saw in her a woman who supported her husband in difficult times [[C:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[C:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[C:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] . As a result of these events, she suffered a microstroke, her vision deteriorated.
After Gorbachev's voluntary resignation from the post of President of the USSR, she disappeared from the field of view of the press. The Gorbachev couple lived in a dacha provided by former President for lifetime use.
R. M. Gorbacheva was also the honorary chairman of the association "Hematologists of the World for Children", which was involved in helping patients with leukemia, personally patronized the Central Children's Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
In 1997, she created and headed the Raisa Maksimovna Club, which provided assistance to children's hospitals, provincial teachers and teachers working with "difficult children". Within the framework of the Club, social problems of Russia were discussed: the role of women in society, the situation of unprotected layers of society, children. AT modern activities club, an important place is occupied by the study of gender inequality and the limitation of women's participation in public politics. Currently, the President of the Club is the daughter of Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev - Irina Virganskaya.
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Monument at the grave of R. M. Gorbacheva
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Despite their busy schedule, the first six Knights of the Temple, who arrived with Magdalene, remained her most beloved and most faithful students. Either because they knew Radomir, or for the simple reason that for so many years they all lived together and, as it were, grew together into a friendly powerful force, but it was these Templars who were the closest to the heart of the Magdalene. She shared with them the Knowledge that she did not trust anyone else.
They were the real Warriors of Radomir...
And they once became the first Perfect Mage of the Valley...
The Perfect Ones were excellent warriors and the strongest magicians, Isidora, which made them much stronger than all the rest of the living (except for some Magi, of course). Maria trusted them with the lives of her children, trusted herself. And then one day, feeling something was wrong, in order to avoid any trouble, she decided to entrust them with the secret of the Key of the Gods ... Which, as it turned out later, was a cruel and irreparable mistake that destroyed the Great Empire of Knowledge and Light in a century ... Pure and wonderful Empire of Qatar.
A terrible betrayal (with the help of the church) by one of her close friends, after the cruel death of Magdalene, gradually transformed Qatar, turning strong and proud warriors into defenseless and helpless... Making the Empire of the Sun and Light easily vulnerable and accessible. Well, and the church, as it usually happened at that time, quietly, calmly continued its dirty work, sending dozens of “new” Cathars to Occitania, “confidentially” whispering to the others how wonderful their life would be without killing, how pure they would be without shedding blood. their bright souls. And the Cathars listened to the beautiful-sounding words, completely forgetting what the Golden Mary once taught them...
Indeed, for a calm, loving people, such as the Occitans were, teaching without bloodshed was much more pleasant. Therefore, after some time, it already seemed to them that this was what Magdalene taught. That would be much better this way. But for some reason, none of them even thought for a minute: WHY did they openly teach this only after the cruel death of Golden Mary? ..
Thus, over the years, the teachings of Radomir and Magdalena turned into a helpless Great Knowledge, which there was no one to preserve and protect... And the "new" Cathars surrendered, giving themselves, their children, their wives, to the mercy of fire and the church... And they burned Children of Magdalene by the thousands, not resisting, not cursing their executioners. They burned, dreaming of a high and starry world, where they would meet their Mary...
- How did this happen, Sever?! .. Tell me, if I have the right to do so ...
Shaking his head sadly, Sever continued.
- Oh, it happened incredibly stupid and insulting, Isidora, so stupid that sometimes you don’t want to believe it ...
Remember, I told you that Magdalene once initiated the closest Knights of the Temple into the secret of the Key of the Gods? I nodded. “But then, unfortunately, none of the Knights of the Temple knew that one of them had been a protege of the “dark ones” from the very beginning ... though he himself was not even aware of it.
– But how is this possible, Sever?!. I was genuinely outraged. - How can a person not feel when doing bad things?
– You can’t fight with what you don’t see or don’t understand, can you, Isidora? - Ignoring my indignation, Sever continued calmly. - That's how he was - he did not see and did not feel what the “dark ones” once implanted into his brain, choosing him as their helpless “victim”. And so, when the time needed for the “dark” came, the “order” clearly worked, despite the feelings or beliefs of the captured person.
“But they were so strong, Temple Knights!” How could someone inject something into them?! ..
– You see, Isidora, being strong and smart is not always enough. Sometimes the "dark ones" find something that the intended victim simply does not have. And she, this victim, lives honestly for the time being, until the muck implanted in her works, and until the person becomes an obedient puppet in the hands of the “Thinking Dark Ones”. And even when the introduction works, the poor "victim" does not have the slightest understanding of what happened ... This is a terrible end, Isidora. I wouldn't even wish this on my enemies...
- So, what - this knight did not know what terrible evil he had done to the others?
North shook his head.
- No, my friend, he did not know until his very last minute. He died like that, believing that he had lived a good and kind life. And he never managed to understand why his friends turned away from him, and why he was expelled from Occitania by them. No matter how hard they try to explain it to him ... Would you like to hear how this betrayal happened, my friend?
I just nodded. And the North patiently continued its amazing story...
– When the church found out through the same knight that Magdalene was also the Guardian of the Smart Crystal, the “holy fathers” had an irresistible desire to get this amazing power into their own hands. And, of course, the desire to destroy the Golden Mary multiplied a thousand times.
According to the plan superbly calculated by the "holy fathers", on the day when Magdalene was supposed to die, the knight who betrayed her was handed a letter from the envoy of the church, allegedly written by Magdalene herself. In this ill-fated "message" Magdalene "conjured" the first Knights of the Temple (her closest friends) never to use weapons again (even in defense!), As well as in no other way known to them that could take away someone else's life. Otherwise, the letter said, in case of disobedience, the Knights of the Temple will lose the Key of the Gods... as they will be unworthy of it.
It was absurd!!! It was the most deceitful message they had ever heard! But Magdalena was no longer with them... And no one could ask her about anything else.
“But couldn’t they communicate with her after death, Sever? I was surprised. “After all, as far as I know, many Magicians can communicate with the dead?”
– Not many, Isidora... Many can see entities after death, but not many can hear them accurately. Only one of Magdalena's friends could freely communicate with her. But it was he who died just a few days after her death. She came to them in essence, hoping that they would see her and understand... She brought them a sword, trying to show that they must fight.
For a while, the opinions of the Perfect Ones were outweighed first one way, then the other. There were now many more of them, and although the rest (newcomers) had never heard of the Key of the Gods, the "Magdalene's letter", in fairness, was read out to them too, skipping lines that were not intended for their ears.
Some of the new Perfects, who wanted to live a quieter life, preferred to believe Mary's "letter". Those who were devoted to her and Radomir with their hearts and souls could not believe in such a wild lie ... But they were also afraid that, if they made a mistake in their decision, the Key of the Gods, about which they knew very little, could simply disappear. The severity of the Duty entrusted to them pressed on their minds and hearts, giving rise to shaky uncertainty and doubts in them for some time ... The Knights of the Temple, reluctantly, sincerely tried to somehow accept this strange “message”. Moreover, it was allegedly the last message, the last request of their Golden Mary. And no matter how strange this request may seem, they were obliged to obey it. At least the Templars closest to her... How they once obeyed the last request of Radomir. The Key of the Gods now remained with them. And they were responsible for its safety with their lives... But it was for them, the first Knights of the Temple, that it was most difficult - they knew and remembered too well - Radomir was a Warrior, just like Maria was a warrior. And nothing in the world could make them turn away from their original Faith. Nothing could make you forget the commandments of real Cathars.
And the first Knights of the Temple, with many newly arrived Templars, decided not to give up...
Even realizing that maybe they go against last will Golden Mary, they still couldn’t give up their weapons so easily when some fifteen years after the death of Magdalene, the army of the church sent their faithful servants to “pacify” the Cathars forever ... Wipe them from the face of Occitania so that new ones never sprout shoots of their bright Faith, so that they no longer remember on Earth their Ancient and Pure Knowledge...
But the number of Knights of the Temple was too small compared to the custom-made "army of the devil", and the Templars died in the hundreds, going against tens of thousands...
They sincerely believed in their devoted hearts that they were not betraying Mary. They believed that they were right, despite the orders of their friends, despite the pressure from the "new" Cathars. But soon there were almost no Knights of the Temple left. As there are no more real Qatars left in Occitania ...
Well, later, almost no one even remembered that once, while the Golden Mary lived, this Teaching was completely different... It was strong, warlike and proud.
My heart was aching and chilly. Could it be that someone who had been with Maria for so many years was able to betray her so terribly in the end? ..
- Tell me, Sever, can you tell me more about the moment of betrayal? I can neither heart nor soul understand this. Even my brain can't accept it...
I stood shocked, not wanting to believe that the most wonderful Empire on Earth was destroyed so simply! .. Again, this was a different time. And it was difficult for me to judge how strong people were then. But the Cathars had the purest, never giving up, proud hearts that allowed them to go, without breaking, to the terrible human fires. How could they believe that the Golden Mary would allow such a thing? ..
The idea of the church was, indeed, devilishly brilliant... At first glance, it even seemed that it brought only kindness and love to the "new" Cathars, not allowing them to take someone's life. But this is only at first glance... For real, this "bloodless" doctrine completely disarmed Qatar, making them helpless against the cruel and bloodthirsty army of the Pope. After all, as far as I understood, the church did not attack while the Cathars remained warriors. But after the death of the Golden Mary and the ingenious plan of the "holy" fathers, the clergy only had to wait a little while the Cathars became helpless at will. And then - to attack ... When there will be no one to resist. When the Knights of the Temple will remain a small handful. And when it will be very easy to defeat Qatar. Without even staining their gentle, well-groomed hands in their blood.
These thoughts made me sick... Everything was too easy and simple. And very scary. Therefore, in order to take my mind off sad thoughts for at least a moment, I asked:
– Have you ever seen the Key of the Gods, Sever?
“No, my friend, I saw him only through the Magdalene, as you saw just now. But I can tell you, Isidora, he cannot fall into "dark" hands, no matter how many human sacrifices it would cost. Otherwise, there will be nowhere else such a name - Midgard ... This is too great power. And if it falls into the hands of the Thinking Dark Ones, nothing will stop their victorious march through the remaining Earths... I know how hard it is to understand this with the heart, Isidora. But sometimes we have to think big. We are obligated to think for all those who come ... and make sure that they would certainly have somewhere to come ...
“Where is the Key of the Gods now?” Does anyone know, Sever? - Anna, who had been silent until now, suddenly asked seriously.
– Yes, Annushka, in part – I know. But I can't tell you about it, unfortunately... In one thing, I'm sure that the day will come when people will finally prove worthy, and the Key of the Gods will shine again on the top of the Northern Country. Only it will take more than one long hundred years before that ...
“But we will die soon, why should you be afraid, Sever? Anna asked sternly. – Tell us, please!
He looked at her in surprise and, after a moment's delay, slowly answered.
- You're right, honey. I think you deserve to know... After the cruel death of the Golden Mary, Radan took the Key of the Gods to Spain to hand it over to Svetodar. He believed that, even being so young, Svetodar would keep the treasure entrusted to him. If need be, even at the cost of his precious life. Much later, being already an adult, going in search of the Wanderer, Svetodar took with him a wondrous treasure. And then, after six decades of long and difficult lived years, already leaving home, he decided that it would be most reliable and correct to leave the Key of the Gods there, in the Northern Country, in order to avoid possible disaster in his native Occitania. He did not know what news awaited him at home. And he did not want to risk the Key of the Gods.
“So the Key of the Gods has been in the North Country all this time?” Anna asked seriously, as if asserting what she had heard.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know, dear. Since then I have had no more news.
- Tell me, wouldn't you like to see a new future, Sever? .. Wouldn't you like to see with your own eyes new earth.. - I could not resist.
– Not in my right, Isidora. I have already outlived my life here and must go Home. Yes, and it's time. I saw too much grief here, there were too many losses. But I will wait for you, my friend. As I told you, my distant world is also yours. I'll help you get home...
I stood lost, not understanding what was happening ... Not able to understand my beloved Earth, nor the people living on it. They were given wonderful KNOWLEDGE, and instead of knowing it, they fought for power, destroyed each other, and died... Thousands died, not having time to live their precious lives... And taking the lives of other good people.
“Tell me, Sever, the Knights of the Temple didn’t all die, did they?” Otherwise, how would their Order have grown so widely later?
- No, my friend, some of them had to stay alive in order to save the Order of the Templars of Radomir. When the church attacked Occitania, they went to friends in neighboring castles, taking with them the head of John and the treasure of the Templars, on which they were going to create a real army, thinking and acting independently, regardless of the wishes of kings and popes. They again hoped to recreate the world that Radomir dreamed of. But to create it this time free, powerful and strong.
(You can read about the remaining Occitan Cathar Warriors (Templars) in the book “Children of the Sun”, which will include excerpts from the original letters of Count Miropoix, the Perfect Warrior who defended the fortress of Montsegur in 1244, the surviving witness to the death of the Montsegur Cathars .As well as extracts from the real records of the Carcassonne Inquisition and the secret archives of the Vatican).
- So, after the death of the Golden Mary, the Cathars were divided, as it were? On the "new" Qatar and the old warriors of Magdalene?
“You are right, Isidora. Only the “new”, unfortunately, all died at the terrible Papal bonfires ... This is what the “holy” church was striving for.
Why didn't the Templars return? Why didn't they recapture Occitania? I exclaimed bitterly.
“Because there was no one to win back, Isidora,” Severus quietly whispered, “there were very few Templars who left. The rest died defending the "new" Qatar. Remember, I told you - each castle and town was defended by about a hundred Knights. Against tens of thousands of the Pope's Crusaders. It was too much even for the strongest...
The new "Perfect" did not defend themselves, giving themselves and others to extermination. Although, if they had helped, the Empire of Light would probably still flourish, and you could still meet the living Cathars... After all, the Perfect Ones burned in the hundreds (only in Beziers, 400 of them burned down!) - together they would have defeated any army! .. But they didn't want to. And the Templars died for them. Which, even realizing that they would lose, could not calmly watch how old people, women and children perish ... How the best burn down ... They burn out because of the stupidest lies.
– Tell me, Sever, did the Golden Mary ever get to the Northern country? – again wanting to change the direction of the conversation, I asked.
Sever for a long time carefully peered into my face, as if wanting to penetrate into my very soul. Then he smiled sadly and said softly:
– You are very quick-witted, Isidora... But I cannot tell you this. I can only answer yes. She visited the sacred Land of her ancestors... the Land of Radomir. She succeeded with the help of the Stranger. But more I have no right to speak even to you... Forgive me.
Half past twelve
More than twenty years ago, on March 11, 1985, an event took place that turned the fate of our country upside down. Mikhail Gorbachev, the youngest general secretary in the entire Soviet history. Few people thought then that with the advent of Gorbachev, revolutionary changes would begin, as a result of which not only politics would change radically Soviet state and the ruling party in it, but the state itself and its party will cease to exist. And certainly no one imagined that the revolution would take place not only in politics; and it will be done by a woman, the wife of the new General Secretary - Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva.
None of the women who are not only in power - next to power, have attracted so much attention to themselves, have not caused so many different rumors and gossip. The attitude towards her was different - from adoration to hatred; there were no indifferent people. But, oddly enough, there was no one who would doubt the most important thing for her: her love for her husband and her husband's love for her ...
How men come to power has been described repeatedly. But few people know how difficult the path of women is next to such men. From the outside, it may seem that such women are happy: after all, they have everything that one can wish for. But how hard it was to come to this happiness, only they themselves know.
As a child, Rai Titarenko had nothing to predict her future rise. Her father, Maxim Andreevich, originally from Chernigov, worked all his life in construction railways. One of the branches passed through the Altai village of Veseloyarsk. Here he fell in love with a local girl, Sasha, married her ... Sasha - Alexandra Petrovna - was from the peasants; until the end of her life she remained illiterate - in peasant families it was not customary to teach daughters. Her father was dispossessed in the early thirties, and then imprisoned on charges of Trotskyism. Neither Sasha nor her father understood who Trotsky was and what Trotskyism was. His wife died of grief and hunger, leaving four children...
But Sasha and Maxim were already far away. Maxim was constantly transferred from place to place, and Sasha followed him. On January 5, 1932, in the city of Rubtsovsk, Altai Territory, Titarenko had a daughter, who was named Raisa. The name was chosen by the father - for him it meant "paradise", a heavenly apple ... Three years later, the son Eugene was born, and three years later - the daughter Lyudmila.
Life was hard. Permanent relocations, temporary housing - barracks, panel houses, even the cells of the former monastery ... Alexandra Petrovna did her best to bring comfort to the next "apartment", planted a garden - and after a new move, everything had to be started all over again. Surprisingly, despite the constant change of schools and the general poor conditions in them - home-made ink and alphabet books, newsprint notebooks, lack of textbooks, teachers and premises - Raisa Titarenko was an excellent student. School in Sterlitamak, in Bashkiria, she graduated in 1949 with a gold medal. This was only the second year that the medals had been awarded; the medal gave the right to enter any university in the country without entrance exams. Raisa chose the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University for herself.
The then students were half-starved, cheerful, curious ... During the day - lectures, at night - part-time jobs, and in the evenings - theaters, dances, libraries and gatherings in the university dormitory on Stromynka - one room for eight to fourteen people. In her first year, Raisa fell in love; but this novel ended in disaster. His parents intervened, who did not like the choice of their son, and he left Paradise. It seemed to her that now she would never again be able to trust a man, never be able to love ...
At that time, it was fashionable for students to learn ballroom dancing. Raya also walked, and she - beautiful, bright, plastic - danced so that everyone looked at her. Once, friends of Misha Gorbachev, who was a year younger, advised him to go to the dance too: such a girl appeared there, you should definitely get to know her! He went and fell in love. He was then twenty years old, she was nineteen ...
At first, the handsome law student's advances were coldly received. But one December evening in 1951, he saw her out of the club - and they started talking, and after talking, they became friends. Walks around Moscow and long conversations have become a tradition. She liked his cheerfulness and the fact that he had his own opinion on all issues and was not afraid to defend it. But Mikhail's culinary talent finally conquered Raisa's heart.
Last years Raisa was ill a lot at the university. When she was in the hospital for a month, Mikhail brought her fried potatoes from the hostel every day. As Raisa Maksimovna herself later recalled, it was then that she realized that Mikhail was her destiny for life. On September 25, 1953, they signed at the Sokolniki registry office.
The wedding was spent on the money that Mikhail earned in the summer harvesting bread. In the studio, Raisa sewed a dress from Italian crepe, and Mikhail - the first suit in his life made of expensive fabric called "Drummer"; so the newlyweds did not have enough money for rings. The bride's shoes also had to be borrowed from a friend. The wedding was played on November 7 in the dietary canteen next to the university dormitory - vinaigrette and Stolichnaya dominated on the table.
Their love has stood the test of time. From youthful passion, over time, it became love-cooperation, friendship and loyalty of two people who have experienced a lot together. On Mikhail's birthday Raisa gave him only one gift - a bouquet of violets; why so - remained their little secret ... When, during a trip to the USA, Raisa Maksimovna could not find this bouquet, she put everyone on their feet, canceled all their events until the violets were found ...
After graduating from the university, Raisa entered graduate school. And Mikhail was offered a choice: either graduate school or work in his native Stavropol. Raisa was pregnant at that time - but it was not possible to give birth to a son; The doctors said that due to health problems, she could not give birth. Raisa was in despair - she was convinced that there could be no normal family without children ... After conferring, the Gorbachevs left for Stavropol.
Mikhail Sergeevich was assigned to the regional prosecutor's office, but he worked there for only ten days: he did not like the work, and his former friends called for Komsomol work. With difficulty, but Gorbachev was nevertheless released from the prosecutor's office - and he was appointed deputy head of the agitation and propaganda department. And so began his journey to the top...
And Raisa did not have a permanent job for four years - and this was with a diploma from the capital. Mikhail's meager salary was barely enough to pay for food and housing - a small room in which all their simple possessions could hardly fit. Here, in this room, on January 6, 1957, Raisa gave birth to a daughter, Irina ... Only at the end of the year, the Gorbachevs received state housing - a room in a communal apartment, in a converted office building.
In the end, Raisa managed to get a job as a teacher at the Department of Philosophy of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute. Raisa was then very thin, small, and in order to look more impressive, she put on as many clothes as possible. She became interested in sociology, began to write a Ph.D. thesis on the life of peasants. With sociological questionnaires, Raisa Maksimovna went around thousands of households, and she was struck by the fact that every fourth house is the home of a single woman ... It seems that it was then that she became interested in the problem of women in Russia, a desire to help, change ...
And Mikhail Sergeevich successfully made a career - first in the Komsomol, and since 1962 in the CPSU. He became the secretary of the city committee, then the regional committee. In fact, leading the Stavropol Territory, Gorbachev radically reformed all branches of local life - from personnel to reclamation programs and the protection of cultural sites. His position had little effect on the life of the family, except that the Gorbachevs finally moved from the communal apartment to a separate apartment. No cottage, no other privileges. The daughter went to a regular school, then independently entered the medical institute in Stavropol - she did not want to leave her parents anywhere. And in 1978, Gorbachev was transferred to Moscow - he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. For the Gorbachevs, a completely different life began.
In Moscow, they received everything that was "supposed" - an apartment, a state dacha, benefits. But Raisa Maksimovna was more worried about something else - her daughter graduated with honors from the Second Medical Institute, where she transferred from Stavropol together with her husband, she had two daughters, Ksenia and Anastasia ...
Early eighties average age members of the Politburo was 67 years old, most were well over seventy. Not surprisingly, the policy they pursued was extremely conservative; any innovations were rejected in the bud. Gorbachev, who tried to continue his reforms in Moscow, found it very difficult to work in such a rigid environment.
In addition, the general secretaries died one after another - Brezhnev, Andropov, on March 10, 1985, Chernenko died. In the morning, Mikhail Sergeevich arrived at the dacha where they then lived, and called Raisa Maksimovna into the garden. He told her that, quite possibly, he would be elected tomorrow. General Secretary. She was not at all happy - she did not like politics, and her husband's career success only upset her. The more time he was forced to devote to work, the less she and her daughter got. But Raisa Maksimovna promised to support him, no matter what happened.
The next day, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was 54 years old.
Gorbachev's appointment to this post was both unexpected and logical. When, after the death of Brezhnev, the head of the KGB Yuri Andropov came to power instead of the "official" Brezhnev's heir Chernenko, he began to pursue a policy of reforms. Under him, the composition of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPSU was significantly updated - now about half of it was made up of supporters of reforms. However, Andropov received the post of General Secretary already mortally ill and died just a year and a half later. With his death, the balance of power changed in favor of the conservatives, and the Politburo, somewhat frightened by Andropov's reforms, elected Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko as his successor.
Chernenko was an average politician, but a good apparatchik. Being - like Andropov - seriously ill, besides having no majority in the Politburo, he was forced to maneuver between the two groups. He appointed M.S. Gorbachev - thus, Gorbachev actually became the second person of the party.
Chernenko died eight months later. By this time, it was already completely clear that the USSR needed certain reforms. About half of the Politburo were "reformers" - mostly those who came there in the last few years. The rest were already very advanced in years and were either seriously ill or were simply unable to resist the "reformers". The head of the "reformers" was Gorbachev - his candidacy suited everyone: the supporters of the reforms saw in him a person who could take the necessary measures to revive the economy and overcome the crisis of power, and the conservatives saw in the election of Gorbachev - the second person after Chernenko in the party - an act of continuity.
Thus, a new era began in the life of the country - the era of Gorbachev. March generally meant a lot in Gorbachev's life. March 2, 1931 he was born; in March he was elected General Secretary; and in March 1990 he became the President of the USSR - the first and last ...
The new general secretary immediately began to introduce his own rules and do what was not customary to do before him. Perestroika began not only in politics, but also in the way of life, the behavior of the first person of the state. Traveling around the country and meeting people in person, speeches "without paper" and broadcasting live performances - everything was new. As well as the fact that his wife was always next to Gorbachev - beautiful, smart, elegantly dressed, with an impeccable hairdo ...
Society reacted ambiguously to her constant stay next to her husband. In the USSR, there was no tradition of "first ladies" - since the time of the widowed Stalin, it was customary for the wives of the country's first persons to stay in the background, not to show themselves to the public. Raisa Maksimovna was the first to decide on this. And that was mostly forced: Gorbachev, who took a course towards the “Europeanization” of his policy, was supposed to have his wife next to him at official events, and he did not consider it possible to ignore the requirements of international diplomatic etiquette. Raisa Maksimovna brilliantly coped with the role assigned to her: she, invariably elegant, dressed with impeccable taste, able to behave herself, conquered the West, accustomed to the obese, taciturn and tastelessly dressed wives of former party leaders (as Western journalists wrote, finally among the leaders of the USSR appeared a woman who weighs less than her husband). Raisa Gorbacheva was one of the first who showed the world a real Russian woman: beautiful, smart, loving, devoted ... Raisa Maksimovna was also loved in the USSR - they saw in her a woman who could finally adequately represent her country abroad, a woman who became a symbol of a liberated from the stagnation and dullness of the people.
Of course, Raisa Maksimovna, as the wife of the first person of the state, could no longer work. But it was both uncomfortable and unusual for her to sit idle. The wives of heads of state in the West have traditionally had two main activities: charity and cultural programs. In the Soviet Union, the very concept of "charity" did not exist, and Raisa Maksimovna was left with culture. Moreover, at the end of 1986, representatives of the cultural elite of the USSR - among them Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev and Metropolitan Pitirim - took the initiative to create a non-governmental public organization- The Cultural Foundation, which was supposed to contribute to the preservation and rise of national culture. Turning to Raisa Maksimovna for help and support, they found in her person the most active supporter. Although there were persistent talks in Moscow at that time that the Fund was being created exclusively “under Raisa Gorbachev”, Likhachev became the Chairman of the Fund, and Raisa Maksimovna became an ordinary member of the Presidium. However, it was thanks to her that the Fund became what it became. Her name alone contributed to the growth of confidence in the new organization. She secured premises for the Foundation, organized the publication of the Our Heritage magazine, and with her active participation, the Foundation's programs were carried out - New Names, Return of Cultural Property, Archives and Works of Art to Russia, and many others. Work at the Cultural Foundation not only helped Raisa Maksimovna survive the separation from science and work, but also significantly improved the attitude towards her in society.
Raisa Gorbacheva in the France-USSR Society, April 1989.
But soon love for her began to cool, turning first into hostility, and then into hatred. Gossip has swirled around Raisa Maksimovna: they say that she dresses from the most expensive couturiers, buys her toilets with state money, they give her expensive gifts ... She turns her husband around as she wants, constantly calls him to work in the Kremlin and says what needs to be done, all her decisions Gorbachev accepts only with her consent ... Jokes and ditties about her dispersed throughout the country. People were annoyed by her teacher's tone, even voice, teaching, didactic intonations; angered her elegant toilets - in an era of total scarcity, she stood out too much against the general gray background. After the earthquake in Armenia in 1987, Raisa Gorbachev was openly reproached for appearing too smartly dressed in the ruins - her elegant suit and fur coat looked defiant against the backdrop of death and ruins. As Raisa Maksimovna herself later said, “no one explained to us what an image is. Of course we made a lot of mistakes." Over time, feeling the irritation that she caused, Raisa Maksimovna stopped traveling around the USSR; she was very upset by the dislike for her, could not understand the reasons ... And in the West they were ready to carry her in their arms. In 1987, five million readers of the British magazine "Woman's Own" named her "Woman of the Year".
In 1985, US Secretary of State George Shultz could not believe that Madame Gorbachev's costume had not been bought in Paris. The famous couturier Yves Saint Laurent was once asked if the outfits for Madame Gorbacheva were his work. He replied that he would be happy if Madame ordered something from him, and even would do everything for her free of charge. But all her outfits were sewn in Moscow, at the Fashion House on Kuznetsky Most, by fashion designer Tamara Makeeva. Gorbacheva considered it her duty to wear only domestically produced clothes. And there weren't many of them. When journalists somehow filmed Princess Diana in the same costume in which she appeared a year earlier, there was a scandal; a woman of this position is not supposed to wear the same outfit twice. But Raisa Maksimovna had to - in many photographs she is in a blouse with a bow collar of her favorite burgundy color, in a double-breasted gray herringbone suit, with the same bag ... But she knew how to present herself in such a way, combine things in an ensemble in such a way that no one was able to accuse Gorbachev of not having enough outfits. Meanwhile, she often had to donate clothes to thrift stores in order to be able to order new things with the money she received. The Gorbachevs handed over all the valuable gifts to the Gokhran - and there were unique things, jewelry, a golden handbag worth about a million dollars ... Raisa Maksimovna was even forced to refuse to visit stores in the West, because they refused to take money from her for purchases, and she could not afford allow it. Her self-control - in every little thing - was amazing. “Mikhail Sergeyevich and I are being examined under a microscope,” she often repeated.
Raisa Maksimovna strictly divided her wardrobe into "external" - for foreign trips - and "internal". Inside the country, she dressed more simply, more restrainedly, more modestly, changed outfits less often, knowing full well that in such a difficult time it was unacceptable to look too chic against the backdrop of a general shortage.
With the "external" wardrobe, too, not everything worked right away. Not being quite familiar with diplomatic etiquette at first, Raisa Maksimovna did not always have outfits for all occasions on trips. One day before the reception, Nancy Reagan sent her a note saying that she would be in evening dress. Gorbacheva did not have a dress with her; on second thought, she put on one of her costumes. Journalists immediately wrote that Madame Gorbachev outplayed Mrs. Reagan - a business suit looked better on her than an elegant dress on the wife of the American president.
In clothes, Raisa Maksimovna preferred burgundy, loved herringbone tweed, was not afraid to wear short skirts - at knee level - she had Beautiful legs. I preferred to drink espresso coffee, Hennessy cognac, Georgian red wine. She loved good perfumery - her favorite perfume was Champs-Elysees by Guerlain. Her hairstyle—delicately dyed hair, cut short, neatly styled—looked the highest degree restrained and elegant against the backdrop of fashionable then violent curls. Many women in the USSR, even scolding "Raika", tried to make themselves the same hairstyle, sew the same suit ... At a time when there were practically no fashion magazines, women learned about fashion trends based on photographs by Raisa Maksimovna.
The rumors that she was leading her husband were also false: as Raisa Maksimovna herself said, if people knew how stubborn Mikhail Sergeyevich was, how impossible it was to influence him, they would not have said so. But the fact that he always consulted with her - they did not hide.
But they didn't stop talking. Gradually, the euphoria in society, caused by the beginning of perestroika, began to pass, giving way to irritation and confusion. The total deficit, the growth of nationalist sentiments, the loss of ideals, inflation - all this did not contribute to love for Gorbachev; "Mishka and Rayka" were accused of the collapse of the country more and more loudly. And August 1991 struck...
The country learned about the State Emergency Committee on the morning of August 19. For the Gorbachev family, who were spending their holidays at their dacha in Foros, in the Crimea, everything began on the evening of the 18th. The next day they were going to fly to Moscow to sign the Union Treaty; Raisa Maksimovna was reading an advance copy of her book “I hope…” – a kind of autobiography in an interview, Raisa Maksimovna's confession; the book was supposed to come out in a few days... And then all the telephones, TV sets, radios suddenly turned off... The Gakachevists came to Foros and offered Gorbachev to resign. When he refused and the delegation left, all those who were at the dacha found themselves in complete isolation. Even the locals were not allowed to go home. The dacha was surrounded by armed men, warships appeared from the sea. Mikhail Sergeyevich had a small receiver with him - he managed to hear the BBC message about the creation of the State Emergency Committee and that Mikhail Gorbachev could not fulfill his duties due to illness ... The Gorbachevs were very upset by the betrayal of former supporters, and the impossibility do something. In front of the entrance to the house sat the guys from the guard, who swore to protect them to the end. At night, locked in a back room, Mikhail Gorbachev's address was filmed on a video camera, the tapes were cut out from cassettes and distributed faithful people- in the hope that, if the worst happens, at least one of them will be able to transfer the recording to Moscow. On August 21, a message was heard on the radio: a delegation was flying to the Crimea in order to personally verify Gorbachev's illness. Raisa Maksimovna realized that anything could happen next - a lie about Mikhail Sergeyevich's illness could be made a reality. She was so worried about her husband that she had a stroke. And soon it was all over...
They left Foros at 11 am on 21 August. The world went around the footage: the aged Mikhail Gorbachev in a jacket, Raisa Maksimovna in a dressing gown, with a tense face, granddaughters wrapped in a blanket ... 72 hours in custody were not in vain for any of them.
A week later, Raisa Maksimovna burned all the letters that her husband had written to her during their life together. She did not want anyone to be able to get into their personal lives again.
Shortly after the August events, Gorbachev resigned. They were immediately evicted from their dacha, without even waiting for Gorbachev to announce his resignation in a televised address. Together with him, Raisa Maksimovna also left - from the Soviet Cultural Fund, immediately after the August events renamed the Russian International Fund, from active life, out of sight ...
She became just a wife. She took care of her husband, as she had dreamed all her life. Reminding him when to take his medication and what appointments he had; cooked dumplings, borscht, potatoes. In the past, elegant outfits remained - in her new life, she preferred trousers, sweaters and sports jackets. Hiking again became the main entertainment of the Gorbachevs - they could walk and talk for hours. She continued to do charity work, but she was no longer in sight, not saying anything to anyone ... Raisa Maksimovna dealt with the problem of childhood leukemia a lot - since 1990 she has been the patron of the World Hematologists for Children association; half of the Nobel Prize of Mikhail Gorbachev and the fee for the book by Raisa Maksimovna "I hope ..." were transferred to the fund of this organization. It is thanks to her efforts that the cure rate for this disease in Russia has increased from 7 to 70.
When in 1996 Gorbachev decided to stand as a candidate for the post of President of Russia, Raisa Maksimovna dissuaded him as best she could: “They won’t even let you utter a word! On television, the road is closed to you! But nevertheless she accompanied him on all trips - they traveled to 22 Russian regions. And opponents again rinsed her name, using all her past sins - both real and invented - against Gorbachev ... However, on this trip, Raisa Maksimovna realized that she still lacked social activities. And in 1997, she created a club for women who are active and successful in life, which, after some disputes, was simply called "Raisa Maksimovna's Club." This club was destined to become the last hobby of Raisa Gorbacheva.
In 1999, Raisa Maksimovna's health deteriorated sharply. The doctors diagnosed him with blood cancer. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and US President Bill Clinton offered their help in the treatment. But it was decided to take Raisa Maksimovna to Germany - they simply could not get to the USA.
Raisa Gorbacheva during the official visit of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR M. S. Gorbachev to Great Britain, April 1989.
An examination at a clinic in the German city of Münster confirmed the diagnosis. Gorbacheva's condition was regarded as "very serious" - the disease was in a neglected state.
It's hard to say what caused the disease - nervous tension in Foros, a trip to Chernobyl shortly after the explosion of the reactor or the experience of recent years. It was clear that Raisa Maksimovna did not have long to live. Her daughter and granddaughters flew to Munster, Mikhail Sergeevich was with her inseparably. Sister Lyudmila arrived - Raisa Maksimovna was being prepared for bone marrow transplantation.
And then the Russian press burst through. They suddenly discovered that not just a woman was dying in a German clinic, not the former hated "first lady" - the heroine of jokes and gossip, but a woman to whom the country owes so much and to whom it gave so little. Every day the clinic received five thousand letters and telegrams from all over the world. Reading an article in Izvestia called "Lady Dignity", Raisa Maksimovna burst into tears and said: "Do I really have to die to deserve love?"
She was lucky. She managed to feel love for herself while still alive and die beloved. Raisa Gorbacheva died on September 20, 1999. There was a huge queue to the coffin, exhibited in the building of the Cultural Foundation on Prechistensky Boulevard. At the funeral service in the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent, everyone who wanted to say goodbye did not fit on the territory of the monastery. Raisa Maksimovna was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery - as Mikhail Sergeevich asked, she was buried where he himself should someday be buried.
At the commemoration, Mikhail Sergeevich remembered an old joke: “What is half of the First?” - Mikhail Gorbachev's wife. With her, the best half of his life left him.
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Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva(nee Titarenko; January 5, Rubtsovsk, West Siberian Territory, USSR - September 20, Munster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) - Soviet and Russian public figure, wife of M. S. Gorbachev.
Paternal grandfather Andrei Filippovich Titarenko moved from the village to Chernihiv, was non-partisan, spent four years in prison, worked as a railway worker. Paternal grandmother - Maria Maksimovna Titarenko. Andrei Filippovich and Maria Maksimovna had three children: two daughters and a son. Andrei Filippovich was put on a heart stimulator, but this did not prolong his life, he died during a walk, and was buried in Krasnodar.
Maternal grandfather Pyotr Stepanovich Parada (1890-1937) - was a wealthy peasant, had six children, four survived: son Alexander Parada (he worked as an economist, died at 26), son Ivan Parada and daughter Alexander. Grandfather was shot as a Trotskyist, as he opposed collectivization and the Stakhanov movement, posthumously rehabilitated in 1988. Maternal grandmother Anastasia Vasilievna Parada - a peasant woman, died of starvation.
Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko was born on January 5, 1932 in Rubtsovsk, West Siberian (now Altai) Territory in the family of railway engineer Maxim Andreevich Titarenko (1907-1986), who came to Altai from the Chernigov province. Mother, Alexandra Petrovna Titarenko (nee Parada) (1913-1991) - a native Siberian, a native of the village. Veseloyarsk, Rubtsovsky District, Altai Territory. Younger brother, writer - Yevgeny Titarenko (b. 1935). Sister - Lyudmila Maksimovna Ayukasova (b. 1938) graduated from the Bashkir Medical Institute, worked as an ophthalmologist in Ufa. During R. M. Gorbacheva's illness, her sister gave Raisa Maksimovna bone marrow for transplantation.
The family often moved after her railway father, and R. M. Gorbacheva spent her childhood in Siberia and the Urals. After graduating with a gold medal from secondary school number 3 in the city of Sterlitamak (), she came to Moscow and was admitted to the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University without exams (1950). There, in a hostel, she met her future husband Mikhail, who studied at the Faculty of Law.
After graduating from the university, she entered graduate school, but soon after her husband, who was assigned to the Stavropol prosecutor's office, she moved to the Stavropol Territory. For the first 4 years, R. M. Gorbachev could not find a job in her specialty, and the family lived on the wages of her husband, M. S. Gorbachev, who worked at the Komsomol work. The Gorbachev family lived in a small rented room in Stavropol, where in 1957 Raisa Maksimovna and Mikhail Sergeevich had a daughter, Irina. In the same year, the family moved into a communal apartment, where they occupied two large rooms.
In 1978 (according to other sources - in 1976) the Gorbachevs moved to Moscow. There, before the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Raisa Maksimovna lectured at Moscow State University, continued to participate in the activities of the All-Russian Society "Knowledge".
Reagans and Gorbachevs
Raisa Gorbacheva at the All-Union founding conference of the Lenin Soviet Children's Fund. October 14, 1987.
As the wife of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and later the President of the USSR, she accompanied Gorbachev on his trips, participated in the receptions of foreign delegations who came to the Soviet Union, regularly appeared on television, often causing hostility of Soviet women, many of whom thought that she was too often changes outfits and talks a lot. Before her, as a rule, Valentina Tereshkova met with the wives of dignitaries who came to the USSR.
“There are a lot of myths and conjectures about my extraordinary addiction to villas, summer cottages, luxurious outfits, jewelry,” Raisa Maksimovna was surprised. - I didn’t sew either with Zaitsev, as he hinted in his interviews, or with Yves Saint Laurent, as the journalists claimed ... I was dressed by female craftsmen from the atelier on Kuznetsky Most ... ”.
Claims for outfits were not the only ones that slipped in the press then. The former head of the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and assistant to M. S. Gorbachev, V. I. Boldin, writes in his book “The collapse of the pedestal” about how the KGB was instructed to select a staff of servants for the first lady from silent, hard-working women, no younger and no more attractive than the hostess .
Abroad, Gorbacheva's personality aroused great interest and high marks. So, in the British magazine "Woman's Own" she was named the woman of the year, the International Fund "Together for Peace" awarded Gorbachev with the "Women for Peace" award, in 1991 - the "Lady of the Year" award. It was emphasized that the wife of the President of the USSR acted in the eyes of the public as a "messenger of peace", and her active support for the progressive ideas of Gorbachev was noted.
During the years of Gorbachev's presidency, she participated in the work of the board of the Help for the Children of Chernobyl Foundation, patronized the International Charitable Association World Hematologists for Children, and patronized the Central Children's Hospital in Moscow. Gorbachev was promoted to the ranks of active European figures, became the laureate of a number of public awards, an honorary professor at universities in Europe, America, and Asia.
However, the hostility of compatriots and compatriots to Gorbacheva’s lifestyle pursued her until the August putsch of the State Emergency Committee of 1991, when, during the days of the imprisonment of the President of the USSR in Foros, people first saw in her a woman who supported her husband in difficult times. As a result of these events, she suffered a microstroke, her vision deteriorated.
Monument at the grave of R. M. Gorbacheva
After Gorbachev's voluntary resignation from the post of President of the USSR, she disappeared from the field of view of the press. The Gorbachev couple lived in a dacha given to the former President for life use.
After the collapse of the USSR, Mikhail Sergeevich wrote six books. Raisa Maksimovna did a great job of checking facts and figures for him.
R. M. Gorbacheva was also the honorary chairman of the association "Hematologists of the World for Children", which was involved in helping patients with leukemia, personally patronized the Central Children's Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
In 1997, she created and headed the Raisa Maksimovna Club, which provided assistance to children's hospitals, provincial teachers and teachers working with "difficult children". Within the framework of the Club, social problems of Russia were discussed: the role of women in society, the situation of unprotected layers of society, children. In the modern activities of the club, an important place is occupied by the study of gender inequality and restrictions on the participation of women in public politics. Currently, the President of the Club is the daughter of Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev -
