Mikhail Gorbachev: how the first and last president of the USSR lives and what regrets

The first and last president of the USSR, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev is 87 years old. Gorbachev is still thinking about the fate of Russia and does not depart from political life. Edition Medusa published a great interview with him, and ForumDaily collected the most interesting quotes of the politician and told how he lives in recent years.

R. Reagan and M. Gorbachev. Photo: wikipedia, public domain

About Freedom

“Solzhenitsyn said somewhere: Gorbachev publicity ruined everything. I found an opportunity to answer him ... I said: this is a deep delusion of a person whom I respect very much. Well, in the end, how can it be - when people (live - ed.) With their mouth closed, when they are unable to even tell a joke, are they immediately sent for re-education somewhere or for logging? And so it was with us. There would be no publicity, we would not begin any changes for the better. And there would be no freedom. Freedom is primarily publicity. Freedom to talk with people about their experiences, about what a person observes (around - ed.) And how he relates to this. If he is mistaken - thanks to his freedom they will correct him. And the press and society. "

About spouse and home

“Raisa (Gorbachev’s wife - ed.) loved to dress well. And frankly, I loved it. Moreover, it was not some kind of divine beauty, but pretty. When we were still young, we didn’t have the opportunity to dress, but whenever we had extra money, for example, for books, I tried to make sure we bought her something new. And those seamstresses who sewed said: it’s good to sew for Raisa Maksimovna, whatever you sew is beautiful, because she knows how to wear. Raisa is some kind of miracle. I loved her and continue to love her, I still can’t believe that she’s gone. And it’s been 19 years since she’s been gone.”

Gorbachev 26 has lived in the same house in Kalchug for years, did not repair it, and never thought to move.

“Today I’m just leaving, I’m looking - it was leaking and falling off somewhere. I come home recently, four buckets set - they catch water. But I like this house. I like it because my life has passed, there is this famous 940 ring of meters inside the yard. The path on which we walked. Every day we tried, wherever we were, to pass the norm - six kilometers per hour. Raisa was gone - stopped walking. ”

Фото: Depositphotos

Regrets

“I forgave a lot. By the way, when I answer questions about what I regret, I say - I forgave a lot. But can you imagine what it would be like if I were the starter of Joseph (Stalin - ed.)? So it is already possible to finish off the country. ”

Russian millionaire Boris Berezovsky once said that he regretted that he didn’t understand people and their human qualities. When a journalist asked whether Gorbachev could say the same thing, he answered:

"Yes. I would say that, too. For example, I believed that there was no need to react to all sorts of antics. When exacerbated, we found ways not to push but to put in place intellectually. With the same story (putsch - ed.) 1991 of the year. I thought - how many attempts were there! Someone is going to take away the right from the president, give it to someone else, then something else. I am holding a meeting in Ogarevo, we are preparing a new (Allied - Ed.) Agreement, and they are doing something like this behind my back. I come on the second day - scattered them to pieces! And I was sure that all the issues had been resolved, and this confidence grew into self-confidence.

I (about the dangers of self-confidence - ed.) Warned Putin. When I said that he considers himself the substitute of God. Of course, it angers him: he said that Gorbachev needed to shorten his tongue. President! Language shortened.

About the current President of Russia Vladimir Putin

“I think he is there.” The place is a common effort to foul up to the limit, but it was necessary to save it (the country - ed.) So that it would not break up. ”

“He has a lot of fun. And he gets drunk, and he dances, and flies, and floats, damn, well, everything that can be done. Here are just afraid of space. Then everyone will write: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, do not come back, do a favor to the people!”.

“We once talked with Putin, and we often met at that time, at the beginning (of his reign - ed.), He says:“ Well, how are you doing in the new party? ” I say: “I’m generally surprised, Vladimir Vladimirovich. The people are going very actively, and I really like the people. ” And then Putin said the catch phrase: “Well, what do you want? Our people are generally social democratic. Or socialist ".

About family

Most of the Gorbachev family lives in Germany.

“Irina married the second time. For Andrei Trukhachev. And he (in Germany - ed.) Works in business - logistics, transportation. I like him, good guy. But he needs to be there. And when they moved with Irina, all the others — her daughters — pulled after them. We have scooped up almost all of our money - our stocks are the most modest. But they all bought apartments there in Berlin. ”

“A group of people has been singled out, like the former president, the same as the apartment. Relations with our family are, of course, close, but far to go. And yet they drive, and I come. We (before - ed.) Met in Germany in the New Year always ... ".

How did Gorbachev live after his resignation?

Ранее Medusa wrote that with 1992, Gorbachev became a private person. The state three-room apartment on Kosygin Street was freed in a hurry - Gorbachev complained that while things were loaded into the car, "some types went after him and conducted an insulting audit, suspecting that the Gorbachevs would steal state property."

By decision of the Council of Heads of the CIS, Gorbachev retained the guards, a service car and a smaller apartment in the same house (they were already sold to the composer Igor Krutoy in 2000). Together with his family, he moved to the country. The house is two-storied. On the ground floor there is a dining room and a kitchen, on the second floor there are two rooms and a bedroom. The house is surrounded by ten hectares of pine forest, where they walked every day with his wife.

In the 1991 year, realizing the closeness of his resignation, Gorbachev founded his own research center, the Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science. Boris Yeltsin, who replaced Gorbachev as president, singled out the building of the “Institute of Social Sciences” for the Foundation of the former president, but with the condition that Gorbachev would cease to be involved in politics. Life has shown that the politicians did not understand each other.

This angered Yeltsin, and in 1992, Gorbachev was taken away from his personal gardener and the “presidential” ZIL assigned to him, leaving a modest official Volga. Gorbachev simply could not buy himself another car: the guards attached to him did not allow him to enter cars that were not certified by the Kremlin.

After leaving the civil service, by the decision of the heads of the CIS countries, Gorbachev was given a solid pension - 4000 rubles (at that time - about four average monthly salaries). However, no one was going to index it, like the pensions of other Russian citizens, so by the summer of 1994, Gorbachev was getting less than two dollars a month. At the end of the same year, Boris Yeltsin, by his decree, corrected the situation and tied the predecessor's pension to the minimum wage - the former USSR president still receives from the state 40 minimum wage per month; now it is 312 thousand rubles, the largest pension in the country.

In 1990, Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize and a million dollars spent on building hospitals.

In 90, Gorbachev earned his livelihood and funding for the Foundation through lectures, which he read mainly in America, and books. Performance fees reached 300 thousand dollars. In 2000, Gorbachev received 100 thousand dollars for speaking at a motivational seminar and 75 thousand for a half-hour performance at a private club.

Thus, in the best years, the former Soviet president could earn more than a million dollars for a trip. However, as several sources in his circle tell, Gorbachev spent the money not on himself, but on projects — his own and his wives.

Another source of income for Gorbachev was shooting in advertising.

He repeated the word “Perestroika”, looking at the buildings and products of the Austrian railway concern. Advertised Pizza Hut - In the video, the Russians in the pizzeria argued about the role of Gorbachev in history and finally saluted him with a piece of pizza (the former Secretary General received 160 thousand dollars for this).

More expensive brands came to him - already in 2007, Gorbachev appeared in advertising Louis Vuitton. In the photo, the ex-president was driving in a limousine along the Berlin Wall with a travel bag, from which a magazine issue stuck out The New Times, opened on an article about the murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

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How does the granddaughter of Stalin live in America

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