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have almost become a kind of narrow expert on interpreting Gorbachev. So you can do 

Gorbachev—you can interpret Gorbachev quite, I think, well in both modes. 

Q — But what does he like? One over the other? 

A — Well, I would say he is—he—well, he likes simultaneous when he speaks to large groups 

of people. He likes consecutive when he is in more intimate situations. He definitely values the 

saving of the time that comes with simultaneous interpretation. 

Q — How did you write this book? And I notice you point out that it was actually finished in 

1992. 

A — Right. Well, it was finished toward the end of 1992. I wrote it without the benefit of a 

computer. I just sat down every morning and wrote a little bit in long hand just because I felt that 

I need to write the book, I need to tell people about that time. So I actually wrote it. 

Q — Had you taken notes during—in other words, do you—do you keep a diary after you do 

some interpretation? 

A — No. I took very, very few notes. So I mostly had my memory to rely on. Maybe it‘s bad that 

I don‘t take notes, but, you know, one—one cannot change those things after perhaps one is 30. 

One cannot change one‘s habits. And I have never had a habit of taking notes. So it was mostly 

my memory and also perhaps some discussions with colleagues that I had to rely on when I was 

writing the book. 

Q — Will this book be published in the Soviet Unio—or in Russia? 

A — Well, it would take me, I think, three or four months to work on the Russian text. It would 

not be exactly a translation. So I‘m now thinking about it. I have to balance the various needs 

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and requirements in terms of my time. I don‘t know yet. I‘ve had expressions of interest from a 

couple of publishers about the book, so perhaps it will be published in Russia. 

Q — You were born in 1949 where? 

A — There‘s a little place near Moscow, about 30 kilometers from Moscow, a little town where I 

was born and where I lived until I was 16 or 17. 

Q — Your grandmother was arrested. What‘s that story?  

A — Oh, well, she happened to be an old Bolshevik. She was never a kind of dogmatic 

Bolshevik, but she was a member of the Communist Party since before the Russian Revolution. 

And, of course, when you are a member of that party since—before the Russian Revolution, 

there‘s very little chance that you would not run afoul of Stalin. And probably at some point 

either she or some mentor or a person she was working closely with ran afoul of Stalin and, 

therefore, she was kicked out of the party in 1936 and was arrest in 1949 when one of those 

sweeps was taking place. And she spent six years in the gulag. 

Q — When did you first find that out?  

A — Oh, I mean, I knew that all the time. I mean, we were sending little packages to her. My 

mother and I wrote letters to her. We received letters from her. Her initial couple of years were 

in very difficult circumstances in the prison. Then she worked in a camp in the library because