WHAT RAISA REAPED
Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s Oct. 27 review of Raisa Gorbachev’s reminiscenses, “I Hope,” rekindled bitter memories for me.
As a result of the Marxist-Leninist system, Mrs. Gorbachev’s grandfather, a well-to-do farmer ( kulak ) disappeared during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. My parents disappeared in the post-Stalinist purge era of the late 1950s.
Unlike Mrs. Gorbachev (nee Titorenko), I did not sell out to the very system that destroyed my family. Mrs. Gorbachev became a specialist in the Marxist-Leninist theory which she lectured on as a faculty member in the Philosophy Department at Moscow University, her alma mater.
During the recent Soviet coup of Aug. 5-7, Mrs. Gorbachev, while on vacation on the Crimean peninsula, experienced first-hand the very terror her Marxist-Leninist system promulgates.
Isn’t there an American saying, “What you sow, you will reap”?
NATASHA VANDERHEYDEN, LAS VEGAS
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.