'He changed the lives of millions — some of them, such as myself, are forever grateful; others are bitter and even hateful. Here are my three recollections of meeting the former leader of a giant country that no longer exists.'
And, of course, there was Gorbachev. Always in a hurry, with a serious, determined expression, this leader, who introduced glasnost and perestroika and helped engineer a peaceful end to the Cold War, was hard to catch for even a brief interview. “What are you asking me?” was his response to my question about what other changes we should expect next.
In October 1996, Gorbachev, by then an ex-president for five years, was invited by Utah’s World Affairs Forum to speak at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall. Before his speech, he and his wife, Raisa, attended a reception. They were running late, and Utah dignitaries who gathered at the Little America Hotel were growing impatient. Yet when the couple, surrounded by their entourage, finally appeared, it was obvious that the man used to be a world leader for a reason.
The minute the Gorbachevs entered the room, the atmosphere changed. Everyone was relaxed, smiling, hoping to shake Gorbachev’s hand and strike at least a short conversation. He didn’t mind at all, patiently listening to countless introductions. Obviously, he didn’t remember me and our brief conversations from way back when, but he did ask a few polite questions about The Salt Lake Tribune.
Later on, during his speech at the U., he seemed a different person. Tense and angry, he blamed then-President Yeltsin for everything that went wrong with Russia — from the widespread poverty to the devastating war in Chechnya. Part of it most likely was that he was still smarting from his ill-advised run for president earlier that year. Gorbachev’s campaign was basically ignored by Russians and the Russian media. He received 0.5% of the overall vote.
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