“Gorbachev”: the love story of the Cold War

In August 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union returned to Moscow with his family after house arrest Crimea after an undemocratic coup d’état run by the KGB he had not been able to lay it down.

Instead of joining hundreds of thousands of elated Muscovites to celebrate his and their victory, Gorbachev went to the hospital with his wife, Raissa, who had suffered a stroke.

This scene was central to Russia’s recent history, and is also central to “Gorbachev”, the most recent successful production of the Theater of Nations in Moscowwhere functions continued in October last year despite the pandemic, albeit with limited capacities.

“I was not married to the country, Russia or the Soviet Union,” Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs.

“I was married to my wife and that night I went to the hospital with her,” said his character, played by Yevgeny Mironovfrom the stage.

“Perhaps it was the most crucial decision of my political life.”

“Gorbachev”, presented for the first time in October last year, is a hymn to the love story of the Gorbachevs.

By putting your relationship at the center, the work does something extraordinary for the Russian art scene.

He paints the country’s leader as a human being, rather than a great demiurge, responsible for the future of the nation.

It shows Gorbachev as someone for whom moral obligations, to his wife, friends and citizens, reigned over politics.

In a country where autocrats carefully protect their image, “Gorbachev” is a breath of fresh air.

Celebrate the humanity of a person who is almost universally acclaimed as a liberator and equally despised by many in Russia as the killer of the country’s superpower status.

Alvis Hermanis, the acclaimed Latvian director who wrote and staged the show, tried to show how political issues seem secondary in the presence of true love.

Hermanis uses the tools of the Russian psychological realism tradition to achieve this goal.

The only two actors on stage, Chulpan Khamatova as Raisa and Mironov as Gorbachev, performed flawlessly with chilling precision, creating an atmosphere of timelessness and melancholy.

Under the direction of Hermanis, the rhythm gives the viewer enough space to reflect on the characters.

Gorbachev, who attended a rehearsal and received an ovation from a stage, did not ask for a single change.

“This is freedom”he said, according to Mironov.

“Get used to it.”

New York Times