"Also The Radiant Future, very funny. That was when he was an anti-Communist dissident. I met him in those days and we butted heads -- I was redder in them days, defending Gorby. Now Z is a neo-Communist reactionary, having realized too late what was lost. He wouldn't like Gorby any better now, but today because MG was the traitor who destroyed the USSR, etc. Only I am sure he'd put it in a funbnier way."
I translate from Alexander Zinoviev, Katastroika, pp. 8:
"A new unpleasantness awaited Mikhail Sergeevich at home. His beloved spouse Raisa Maksimovna, who her adoring workers called Gorbachushka, announced categorically that she wanted to go to Paris. She was missing the Eifel Tower. She wanted to go strolling through the Louvre. And most importantly, the years were passing by, and her world-shaking beauty was fading. In a couple of years, Nancy, the aged wife of former President Reagan, would once again be considered the most beautiful woman in the world. The Americans have accomplished a great deal in this area -- they can make an Egyptian mummy look like Miss America. And yielding first place in beauty to Nancy was inadmissable in any circumstances. It would be a vulgar ideological, political and even military mistake. And to retain her position as the most beautiful woman, Raisa Maksimovna needed to renew her wardrobe in the most fashionable stores in Paris. Mikhail Sergeevich himself would have been glad to visit Paris in order to strengthen his image as the sexiest man on the planet and the possessor of the most charming smile -- we have at least in the smile department caught up to and overtaken the USA. But it was impossible to free up a couple of days for this. It was necessary every day to carry out at least one reform, maybe even two or more."
;)
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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