It's snobbism. Gorby is an educated man has a provincial accent. He writes hsi own books, which is more than you can say about any US prez since Einsenhower (yes! Ike, a former University Prez--Columbia--wrote Crusade in Europe all by himself, the dullest book written about WWII). Stalin spoke with a strong Georgian accent, and when you talk about crude! Recall that crude, rude, and beastly was Lenin's characterization of him in the Testament. Khrushchev talked like Ukrainian peasant he was. Crudity ran with
the job. ----------------- I write:
I think Khrushchev wriites in his memoires about Stalin's language being so foul he often had to put the telephone receiver down (using obscenities is a real social no-no in Russia).
Gorbachev messes his stresses up a lot. Instead of saying "Ya napiSAL," "I wrote," he will say, "Ya naPIsal," "I urinated."
Didn't Khrushchev actually attend some sort of agricultural institute?
Gorbachev last book, by the way, or his recently to-be-published book, I forget which, is coauthored with a Buddhist monk!
Chris Doss The Russia Journal