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While Gorbachev's working schedule does not seem to be overly taxing, he recently answered an Italian interviewer's question as to how he spends his free time by saying simply, "I have none." He is, however, an avid theatergoer. In Stavropol he and Raisa attended not only every play that opened but also many dress rehearsals. In Moscow, while preparing for the Washington summit, they found time to take in The Peace of Brest, a historical drama about Lenin's early years in power that opened Nov. 30.
The Gorbachevs have a daughter Irina, 28, who is a physician and married to another doctor, and two known grandchildren. The extent to which the Gorbachevs guard their family privacy can be gauged by some of the things that are not known for sure: Irina's married name (only the first name of her husband, Anatoli, has been disclosed); the granddaughter's name (it has been reported as both Oksana and Xenia); her age (probably seven); and the sex and name of a second grandchild (Gorbachev proudly told former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who visited Moscow last summer, that one had just been born, but would disclose no more than that).
Gorbachev retains his ties to Privolnoye, going to see his mother there at least once a year. On one trip to Stavropol in 1982, Gorbachev, by then a member of the Politburo, talked with aged collective farmers, who complained about their low pensions of 36 rubles ($49.30) a month. "I know my mother also receives 36 rubles, but she keeps chickens and a cow; why don't you?" Gorbachev replied. (Nonetheless, back in Moscow, he saw to it that pensions were increased.) Maria Panteleyevna regularly attends Russian Orthodox Church services, and there are reports that she had Gorbachev baptized. Gorbachev has said that his grandparents kept icons in their home, hiding them behind pictures of Lenin and Stalin, and once took him to church. He added, though, that he had no desire to go back. Officially, at least, he is an atheist whose occasional references to God are probably no more than an unconscious repetition of phrases common in the rural Russia of his boyhood.
As a law student, Gorbachev received some practical training in oratory. That, plus a natural flair for speaking, has produced a man who is considered the finest orator of any Soviet leader since Lenin (who was also trained as a lawyer). Gorbachev's phraseology is not remarkable, or at least does not read well in translation. The English version of Perestroika, published in the U.S. just before the December summit, is blandly general. But in a Gorbachev speech, as TV viewers around the world have discovered, phrases that seem flat on the printed page suddenly come to life.