Journal 63 – Raisa Gorbachev – a new generation Russian First Lady


Raisa Maximowna Gorbachev, 67, died on September 20, 1999, because of leukemia in the clinic in Germany. Raisa was slim, fashionable and brilliant women. She dressed up in elegant clothes and talked about literature and arts. She was a professor of philosophy.
Raisa Maximowna was admired abroad and wasn’t liked in her own country. The Russian people didn’t understand a new generation First Lady, who replaced former “babushkas”. They didn’t show up with their husbands. Raisa shocked all. Everybody knew that she had big influence on President Mikhail Gorbachev.
However, when Russians found out about Raisa’s disease, they began to send letters, flowers, money and donated blood. They ensured her that they pray to God for her health.
After Raisa’s death condolences sent many heads of countries from whole the world, inter alias, Pope John Paul II. The president Boris Yeltschin, the strong Gorbachev’s opponent, wrote Mikhail Sergeyevich, “You lost faithful and devoted friend. You missed a great person, a beautiful women, beloved wife and mother”.
President B. Yeltschin sent to Germany special president’s plane. Raisa’s funeral took place in Moscow. She was buried on the Novodivitche cemetery, where are buried notably personages.