>I post this because I was harping on the pernicious affects of shock
therapy
>in Russia. From an interview with Gorbachev (I know I post a lot of Gorby
>stuff, but, dammit, I like him).
Why? Does everyone in Russia still hate him?
Back during Gorbymania days, Spy mag did a story saying that he was rather crude, and his Russian sounded like a rube's. Is there any truth to that?
Doug ----------------- I like Gorby because he was 100% correct on the need for preserving the union, changing it gradually and the idiocy of shock therapy (you can argue about whether the first two were feasible, but it's hard to say they weren't desirable). Glasnost is also the source of whatever democracy exists in Russia that wasn't squelched by Yeltsin, as well as of freedom of expression. He's also just generally a good human being.
The main reason Gorbachev is hated in Russia is because he didn't have Yeltsin made into ambassador to Botswana or someplace where he couldn't have caused trouble. He is pitied as a weak man who wasn't strong enough to do what had to be done to keep the country together. He is also often considered a sell-out who was more interested in looking good in the West than attending to the needs of the citizenry and the geopolitical interests of the USSR -- letting the Warsaw Pact go without any more than a verbal assurance that NATO would be dismantled, for instance. I would say his popularity is increasing now with teh passage of time and because the Yeltsin-era policy, which was to deny Gorbachev access to the media and blame everything bad that happened on him, has been lifted. Before his birthday last year, there was "Happy 70th, Mikhail Sergeyevich!" posters everywhere in Moscow.
Gorbachev speaks rather funny, rambling Russian. He mumbles. He's not eloquent in the slightest. And he rambles. (I was at a press conference with him last year, so I can attest to this personally. He takes forever to make a point.)
Chris Doss The Russia Journal