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His wife Raisa interrupted to recall that she too is often asked whether she would have supported his reform plans if she had known what was going to happen. She is the wounded one, plainly marked by the trauma of losing power, and she was willing to speak on the record. "Had I known all that I know now," she said, "I still think I would have decided to support him." Despite her pride in what she called "the tremendous breakthrough" of perestroika, she says the past seven years were full of "traumatic events" and that 1991 was "tragic." She cited "the 73 hours spent under arrest" in the hands of coup plotters last August, "the betrayal by people who had worked closely with my husband," the collapse of the economy, "the rupturing of the spiritual links of our culture," and the dismembering of the Soviet Union. "I cannot regard Ukraine as some kind of foreign country," she said. "Ukraine is us."
Gorbachev aptly noted that he was the first Soviet President who was neither buried nor arrested but continues to play a visible public role. Russians don't know what to make of this and are suspicious. His foundation and his other activities, he observed, could lead to conflicts with the newly arrived crop of politicians who have much to learn about the give and take of democracy.
He shrugs off threats to his personal safety. She is openly worried. They were in physical danger once and could be again, she fears. She sees threats all around: the Russian press, she says, is mounting an anti-Gorbachev campaign, printing reports that he has bought houses in foreign countries or has smuggled vast sums of money abroad. In a rough-and-tumble society like Russia's, this spells uncertainty at least.
Gorbachev is outspokenly weary of criticism, from radical reformers and hard-line communists alike. Both sides hated and vilified him for years, he says, but offered no solutions. He calls on those who can solve Russia's problems to speak up and those who cannot to keep quiet. What passes for decisive leadership today, he says -- naming no names -- has done nothing to dampen continuing outbreaks of nationalist upheaval and ethnic bloodletting.
Despite the economic and political crises in the republics of the former Soviet Union, Gorbachev projects an overwhelming optimism. Russia is down, he says, but will rise again. Although he vows he will not become part of the opposition and has no political ambitions, his continuing involvement in high policy implies he may see himself as the once and future President. His country is in no mood to recall him to power now, and he cannot be sure it ever will. But if it does, his undiminished self-confidence indicates that he is ready to answer.