Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva (russian: link=no, Раи́са Макси́мовна Горбачёва
Romanized ''Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachyova'', , Титаренко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Soviet-Russian activist and philanthropist who was the wife of Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev.
She raised funds for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage, fostering of new talent, and treatment programs for children's
blood cancer
Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (American English) or tumours of the haematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (British English) are tumors that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. Because these tissues are al ...
.
Early life and education
Raisa Maximovna Titarenko was born in the city of
Rubtsovsk
Rubtsovsk (russian: Рубцо́вск, ) is a city in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Aley River ( Ob's tributary) southwest of Barnaul. Population: 167,000 (1975); 111,000 (1959); 38,000 (1939).
History
It was founded in 1892.
A numbe ...
in the
Altai region of
Siberia. She was the eldest of three children of Maxim Andreyevich Titarenko, a railway engineer from
Chernihiv
Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within t ...
in
Ukraine, and his Siberian wife, Alexandra Petrovna Porada, from
Veseloyarsk. She spent her childhood in the
Ural Mountains, and met her future husband while studying philosophy in Moscow. She earned an advanced degree at the
Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and taught briefly at
Moscow State University.
Life with Mikhail Gorbachev
She married Mikhail Gorbachev in September 1953 and moved to her husband's home region of
Stavropol in
southern Russia upon graduation. There she taught
Marxist–Leninist philosophy and defended her
sociology research thesis about
kolkhoz life. She gave birth to a daughter, Irina Mikhailovna (married name: Virganskaya; Ирина Михайловна Вирганская), on 6 January 1957. When her husband returned to Moscow as a rising
Soviet Communist Party official, Gorbacheva took the post of a lecturer at her alma mater,
Moscow State University. She left the post when her husband became
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985. Her public appearances beside her husband as first lady were a novelty at home and went a long way in humanizing the country's image. She was one of the few communist party leaders' wives to have a high public profile of her own.
On 1 June 1990, Gorbacheva accompanied U.S. first lady
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...
to
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...
in
Massachusetts. Both women spoke before the graduating class during the commencement service, touching on the role of women in modern society. All the
American television networks
In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national terrestrial networks. From 1946 to 1956, these were ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont (though the Paramount Television Network ha ...
covered the addresses live;
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...
provided live cable-TV coverage around the world. The events of the
Soviet Coup of 1991, which attempted to depose her husband from power, left a lasting scar on Gorbacheva, who suffered a minor stroke on the final day.
The political turmoil that followed pushed the Gorbachevs into the shadows.
Philanthropy
In 1989, following a personal address from Professor Rumyantsev and others, Gorbacheva contributed US$100,000 to the charity "International Association of Hematologists of the World for Children". This and further donations raised by both of the Gorbachevs helped to buy equipment for
blood bank
A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a department of a hospital usually within a Clinical Pathology labo ...
s and to train Russian doctors abroad.
In 1997 she established the Raisa Maksimovna's Club aimed at galvanizing the participation of women in politics. She also worked to raise awareness of children's issues (she had frequently welcomed youth delegations to the Kremlin when her husband could not be present).
Illness and Death
Gorbacheva suffered a stroke in October 1993.
In July 1999, she was diagnosed with
leukemia by the Institute of Haematology RAMS. Shortly after, she travelled with her husband and daughter to
Münster in Germany for treatment at the medical clinic of the
Münster University Hospital. She received treatment for two months under the supervision of Professor Thomas Büchner, a leading haematologist, but died on 20 September aged 67. She was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Legacy
In 2006, her family founded the Raisa Gorbacheva Foundation, which raises money to support those with childhood cancer.
In 2007, the Raisa Gorbacheva Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Transplantology opened at the
First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg.
Books
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*
Notes
References
Further reading
*
Raisa Gorbacheva biography at the Gorbachyov Foundation websiteRaisa Gorbachev's life in pictures BBC News
Profile of Alexandra Titarenko (Raisa Gorbachev's mother)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorbacheva, Raisa
1932 births
1999 deaths
People from Rubtsovsk
Russian people of Ukrainian descent
Spouses of Russian and Soviet national leaders
Moscow State Pedagogical University alumni
Moscow State University alumni
Mikhail Gorbachev
Deaths from leukemia
Deaths from cancer in Germany
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery