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she was in bad health. So she was working as a library assistant in the prison camp. But, you 

know, it‘s not a vacation home. So I knew that. 

Q — What impact did that have on you? 

A — I think it had a kind of anti-Stalinist impact.  

Q — Were you ever a member of the Communist Party? 

A — Yes, of course. I was working in the foreign ministry, and for all I know 99.9 percent of the 

people working in the foreign ministry, certainly in the diplomatic positions, were members of 

the Communist Party. At that time it was a kind of an administrative necessity. But also, it was 

a—an organization that brought together people of very, very different views, of very different 

kinds of thinking. If you look at the people active in the politics today, most of them were 

members of the Communist Party in those years. 

I‘m not saying that by way of an apology. I‘m just saying that at that time when 19 million 

people in the Soviet Union were members of the party, you could hope to succeed in certain 

occupations, in certain professions only if you were a member. And you also thought—some 

people thought that they could improve the party if they were members. 

Q — By the way, I think you allude to this in the book, but do—when you go around the United 

States, do people recognize you from all the times we‘ve seen you next to a Soviet leader over 

the years or a Russian leader? 

A — Yeah. People do. People do. And some of them come up and say hello and say something 

good and flattering and complimentary. People recognize me in the States, people recognize me 

in Russia. Some people want to talk. And in most cases I would say overwhelmingly people say 

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good things and, of course, I understand that those are good things about Gorbachev mostly 

rather than about myself. I kind of—it‘s a reflected light, so to say. It‘s not my own light. 

Q — How often do you come to the United States now? How of—how many days in the year do 

you spend in the States?  

A — Oh, I don‘t know. I come with Gorbachev and he makes one or two visits to the United 

States every year in order to respond to at least some of the invitations that he receives from the 

various universities and groups and organizations. He comes a couple times or once a year. I 

come to work at the UN a year—once or twice a year. So I cross the Atlantic pretty often. I have 

my own system for fighting jet lag. So I do come often enough. 

Q — How interested are the Americans in Mr. Gorbachev? 

A — Oh, I think they still are and not just Americans. I think that even though it is said that 

Gorbachev is very unpopular in Russia, people in Russia are also interested in Gorbachev. 

They—ask—always ask me questions about him. People in America always ask me questions 

about him. I think it shows that he has not been overshadowed by any other figure. I think that 

most other people, you know, six or seven years after their resignation, they would not evoke 

that much interest. Gorbachev does.