Sometimes when reading for research – or watching documentaries – I can get carried away by the authors – or actors in the story. And so I google – and sketch away.
Today – Raisa Gorbacheva, the spouse of Mikhail Gorbachev and the First Lady of the USSR in its last years. I was deeply touched by Gorbachev recounting on him first meeting and falling in love with this remarkably intelligent, vibrant, and purposeful woman.
Video footages of Raisa Maximovna remind me of my grandmother, too – who, in her turn, once went very thoughtful as we spoke on the last First Lady. „I used to dislike her back then, – she said with quiet surprise in her voice. – We all disliked her because she was so visible. Unlike all other wives of previous GenSecs she was there, she was talking, and we were not used to that self-confidence we took for bossiness“. My grandmother was, as the matter of fact, very much alike – an epitome of positively strong-willed, self-confident, intelligent woman in a leading position – who performed and overperformed not because she wanted to prove anything, but because it was an inherent part of her sovereign identity. I think she knew then, that she and Raisa Maximovna were very similar in this concern.