Mikhail Gorbachev Wife: Who Was Raisa Gorbachev?

Raisa Gorbachev was the wife of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, a Russian and Soviet politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union. She was born in January 1932 and died on 20 September 1999 at age 67.

Raisa was a Soviet and Russian activist who raised funds for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage, fostering of new talent, and treatment programs for children’s blood cancer.

Raisa was born in the city of Rubtsovsk in the Altai region of Siberia and was the eldest of three children of Maxim Andreyevich Titarenko, a railway engineer originally from Chernihiv in Ukraine, and his Siberian wife, Alexandra Petrovna Porada, originally from Veseloyarsk.

Raisa and Mikail got married in September 1953 and she moved to his home region of Stavropol in southern Russia upon graduation.

While there, she taught Marxist–Leninist philosophy and defended her sociology research thesis about kolkhoz life.

Raisa’s public appearances beside her husband as first lady were a novelty at home and went a long way in humanizing the country’s image.

She was also one of the few wives of a communist party leader to have a high public profile of her own.

She has a daughter Irina Mikhailovna, born on 6 January 1957.