Russia: If You Think Boris Has It Tough

Russia’s economic free fall has not been kind to MIKHAIL GORBACHEV. First, in the banking collapse that followed last August’s devaluation of the ruble, he lost–as he told the German magazine Bunte–his life savings of some $80,000. Then the Pizza Hut in Moscow that he made world famous in a TV commercial last year closed its doors. Now he’s trying to make a little scratch and regain a measure of respect at home–where the vast majority of his compatriots continue to revile him for causing their present woes–with the latest volume in his post-Politburo oeuvre. Titled Thoughts on the Past and the Future, the 300-page “textbook” consists of the former General Secretary’s deep thoughts on his country and the 20th century as the millennium approaches. Although Columbia University Press is to publish an English-language edition in 1999, Gorby has little hope for redemption at home. The Russian-language run of Thoughts is embarrassingly small: just 10,000 copies have been printed. And although the book costs only about $1, fewer than 100 of his die-hard groupies turned up last week at a gala press conference to grab the first copies.

–By Andrew Meier/Moscow