With Gorbachev, it was love at first sight! Today, they disparage him: “He betrayed the USSR!” “He sold our country out for pizza!” But I remember how amazed we were. Shocked! We finally had a normal leader. One we didn’t have to be ashamed of! We would tell one another the stories of how he’d stopped his motorcade in Leningrad and went out into the street, or how he refused to accept an expensive gift at a factory.
