Mikhail Gorbachev - The New Russia

It upsets me that Europe cannot put its house in order and finally become a global driver of change for the better.

My first trip to Canada was amazing. In 1983 I spent seven days there and an American radio station managed in that time to arrange my funeral. They reported I had drunk myself into a stupor at a party with the minister, had a heart attack and died. It’s just what they do. They can’t seem to grow out of it.

Pass the author his book! This is my first book of memoirs, published in 1995. I want to read you a passage from it about the land our hut stood on: ‘There were apple and pear trees of different varieties. Which exactly was of no interest to me at the time. I remember only that they were delicious and, crucially, ripened at different times, so we had them all through the summer and autumn. Beyond the apples and pears were the plums, black and white. Beyond that the orchard gave way to an overgrowth of elm, a real jungle that took up almost a third of the land. I had my own hiding places there, and one time got my hands on a book called The Headless Horseman. I disappeared for nearly three days. My mother was going crazy, not knowing what to think, but until I had read that book from cover to cover I hid away.’

Recently I have found myself going down from the first to the ground floor to do something, but by the time I get there I’ve forgotten what I went down for.

I am an optimist. I end many of my interviews by saying it, so let’s finish on that.

Life teaches you more than any teacher.

(Published in the Russian edition of Esquire , September 2012.)

Notes : MG and RG in various sub-entries and parentheses refer to Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev(a) respectively. Chinese and Korean names are indexed as written, i.e. family name followed by given name – no comma separator. Japanese and some other names are listed according to usual Western practice. Plates are indicated as individually numbered, in bold type, e.g. P10.

Abalkin, Leonid

Abdullah II, King of Jordan

Aberdeen

Abkhazia

independence recognized by Russia

Acceleration

Adamovka

Adenauer, Konrad

Afghanistan

military action against

Soviet invasion (1979)

Africa

people with AIDS

see also Botswana; Egypt; Ghana; Nigeria; South Africa; Tunisia

Ageyeva, Valeriya

agriculture

protecting and supporting workers

subsidized

Aitmatov, Chingiz

Akhmadulina, Bella

Akunin, Boris

Albanian separatists

Albats, Yevgenia

Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria

Alexander I, Tsar of Russia

Alexeyev, Ilya

Alexeyeva, Lyudmila

Alexiy II, Patriarch of All Russia

Alma-Ata

Altai

American University (Washington, DC)

Amu Darya river

Analytical Centre of the President of Russia

Andreotti, Giulio

Andreyeva, Nina

Andropov, Yury Vladimirovich

Anka, Paul

Anna (letter-writer)

Annan, Kofi

Anpilov, Viktor

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

anti-terrorist coalition

Antonov-Ovseyenko, Anton

Arab–Israeli conflict

Arab Spring (2010–11)

Arafat, Yasser

Arakcheyev, Alexey

Aral Sea

Arctic Ocean

Argentina

Argumenty i Fakty (newspaper)

Armenia

arms race

accelerating

halted/ending

interests vested in

new

unbridled

Aron, Leon

Asahi Shimbun (Japanese newspaper)

Association of Doctors for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Astafiev, Viktor P.

Atlanta, Georgia

see also Emory University

auctions

deposit

loans-for-shares

Australia

authoritarianism

alarming displays of

attempts to rehabilitate x

avoiding the slippery slope to

climate in society and politics fraught with

danger of fomenting

executive

full-blown

governments in Russia traditionally tend towards

how to save Russia from sliding into

mechanism needed to insure against

methods to resolve particular problems

MG opposed to moves towards

moderate

moves affecting state and public institutions opposed by MG

people have made clear they do not want to live under

politicians seem to be in great demand

potential for

preventing a slide into

probability of transition to

Putin has no intention of establishing

strengthening the structures and machinery of

tendencies towards

autocracy

Auzan, Alexander

Aven, Pyotr

Baburova, Nastya

Bahr, Egon

Baker, James

Baku

Balakovo

ballot-rigging

charter for

Ban Ki-moon

banking system

Baranovsky, Vladimir

Barcelona

Barnaul

Barvikha sanatorium

Bassey, Shirley

Bavaria

Neuschwanstein Castle

Wieskirche

see also Munich; Wildsteig

Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands

Beijing

Bekhtereva, Natalia

Belarus

see also Lukashenko; Minsk

Belgrade

Belo, Carlos Filipe Ximenes

Belomorsk

Belovezha Accords

Belozertsev, Sergey

Beltsy

Belykh, Vadim

Berezovsky, Boris

Beria, Lavrentiy

Berlin

Berlin Wall

Berners-Lee, Sir Timothy

Bertelsmann

Beslan tragedy (2004)

Bessmertnykh, Alexander

Bhutto, Benazir

Biermann, Wolf

billionaires

Bipartisan Commission on US Policy towards Russia

Bismarck, Otto von

Black Sea Fleet

Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Bogomolov, Oleg

Bolshaya Politika (magazine)

Bolshevism

Boltyanskaya, Natella

Bonn

Hotel Petersberg

Villa Hammerschmidt

Bonner (Sakharov), Yelena

Borodin, Pavel Pavlovich

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnian Serbs

Boston

Harvard University

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

Botswana

Boutros-Ghali, Boutros

Braithwaite, Rodric

Brandt, Willy

Brazil

growth of economic power

Brezhnev, Leonid

BRICS see Brazil; China; India; South Africa

Britain see United Kingdom

British-German Society

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary

Brundtland Commission (1987)

Brussels

see also EU

Brzezinski, Zbigniew

Bulgaria

Bundestag elections

Bunimovich, Yevgeny

Burbulis, Gennadiy

Burlatsky, Fedor

Bush, Barbara

Bush, George H. W.

MG with Helmut Kohl and (Germany 2005)

Bush, George W.

first meeting between Putin and

Bush, Preston

Byelorussia see Belarus

Cabinet of Ministers

abusing the infinite patience of the Russian people

Cairo (Tahrir Square)

California

Fresno

Simi Valley

Stanford

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Canada

MG’s first trip to

see also Mulroney

Candide (Voltaire)

Card, Andrew

Carter, Jimmy

Catherine II (the Great), Empress of Russia

Caucasus

Russia is bound to

United States and

see also Armenia; Chechnya; Dagestan; Georgia; Transcaucasia

Central Bank

Central & Eastern Europe

democratic change

free elections

NATO and

Central Electoral Commission

see also Churov; Veshnyakov

Centre for the Preservation of Contemporary Documentation

Channel One Television

Charan Singh, Chaudhary

Charter of Paris see OSCE

Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Republic