European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Magazine unusual focus on soviet first lady by Carol Williams associated press a photo Raisa Maximova Raisa Maximova wife of soviet Leader Mikhail is clearly being Given a higher profile than the wives of previous leaders and seems comfortable in the unofficial role As soviet first her High visibility fits with the Manoth people image projected by her husband in a break from the stodgy leadership style of the succeeded Konstantin who died March 10 at the age of he is the youngest Man to assume the party top Post since Gorbachev age is not but she appears to be in her Early during the recent visit of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Gorbachev part in offi Cial greetings for the couple was captured for the soviet Public both on television and in frontage newspaper Pho wives of soviet officials Are rarely pictured in Krem Lin the Page one photo in the government news paper Izvestia also showed foreign minister Andrei Gromyko and Gandhi along with the soviet and Indian Gorbachev escorted Sonia Gandhi to Moscow Art galleries and to the historic cities of Vladimir and Kuzdal for sightseeing while their husbands worked out Trade and economic at the rain drenched May Day Parade in red Gorbachev stood near foreign diplomats and seemed unruffled by a gathering Circle of Western there was no soviet television or press coverage of her at the but she was shown on television briefly when she attended a Kremlin gala marking soviet founder Vladimir lenins birthday on april Gorbachev has spoken often about the need to promote women and Young people in party and government posts and has taken his campaigns for discipline and efficiency directly to institutes and people in the when he went to Leningrad earlier to talk with party officials and workers about intensifying the Pace of soviet Industrial his wife went television showed her touring a clothing factory with her and the two of them chatting with even before Gorbachev Rise to the top Kremlin Gorbachev set herself apart from the image of the russian working woman by accompanying her husband on his official visit to London in in before Chernenko soviet officials invited Western photographers to take pictures of Gorbachev and his wife voting in parliamentary she smilingly obliged reporters wanting to know the name of her daughter and Young granddaughter accompanying what a Chic lady is commented Lon dons daily Mirror columnist Peter tory after the London and what a contrast to the previous glimpses we have had of other senior russian wives who looked As though they should be building dams in despite the attention paid to the wife of Gorbachev by soviet and Western the Kremlin traditional secrecy Over details of the leaders personal life remains few outside of the highest echelons of Power know How Long the Gorbachev have been married or when and How they Gorbachev is a lecturer on marxism leninism at Moscow state her husbands Alma she said during her trip to she also expressed an interest in English the Western world Seldom glimpsed the wives of Cher Nenko and Leonid Brezhnev in comparison with Gor and few outside of official Kremlin circles even knew Yuri Chernenko had mar ried until his widow was seen at his the image of a soviet first lady held by Many West Erners is often that of Premier Nikita Khrushchev a shy woman whose sparse conversation Dur ing his 1959 tour tended to focus on family and Domestic Victoria Brezhnev entertained first lady Patricia Nixon when she visited with the former president in but the women activities Drew scant notice from soviet Sonia by Seema Sirohi associated press India italia born first lady Sonia Gandhi wears elegant Speaks fluent Cooks spicy fasts one Day a week and says her husband is her she appears on Magazine covers and television glamorous with her cascading her eyes usually hidden behind Large but she is an intensely private person who dislikes publicity and re Mains dignified and mysterious to most of India 750 million on her trip to Moscow last her first As the prime ministers Sonia Gandhi was obviously diffident and she brushed past admirers who had waited hours to see not offering so much As a a devoted wife for 17 years and Mother of attends Only the required state functions and usually shuns the especially foreign she never has granted an interview to a foreign journalist or made a Public but recently she granted her first interview As first lady to a leading Hind language i dont like being in the it is not something it is just my she told Dharam yug Era of religion in my upbringing is such that i feel my husband is Superior to me and his Mother even More she she called her husband my greatest Sonia Gandhi was like a daughter to the late prime minister Indira it was Sonia who rushed out to find her lying in blood after her assassination last she cradled the dying woman head in her Lap on the Way to a she was Gandhi she ran her selected her saris and cooked pasta for she showered me with All her affection and Gandhi said in the she said she Learned to fast one Day a week from Indira Mummy told me we should sacrifice something we value most to so i simply sacrifice a Days she she said she found an inner Beauty in Rajiv Gandhi whom she met at Cambridge University in 1964 when he was studying mechanical engineering and 17 year old Sonia Maino was improving her As he was somewhat different from the deeper and Wiser than his outward she for a Long time he never told her he was the heir of the legendary Nehru family and the prime ministers we got closer to each other because we were both foreigners she when Indira Gandhi first met her future daughter she told her i am a you need not be afraid of i can understand your but the prime minister initially opposed the marriage to a foreigner and asked Rajiv to wait almost three sonias a businessman and devout also objected to a husband from a different different different religion and she they were married in 1968 when Rajiv Gandhi was an easygoing airline Pilot with no thought of politics and some distaste for a was born in 1970 and a in they were the smart couple of the going to parties and shopping at exclusive boutiques and wearing Western Sonia used to Wear Bulky sweaters and High heeled Sonia said she was sad about the appalling poverty she first saw in India but was fascinated by the she Cut herself off from her parents and relatives until i Felt my roots were firmly set i cannot keep she even today she and the italian embassy have virtually no the Young Gandhi were forced to change their life style and become the perfect hindu couple after their entry into Gandhi became his mothers political heir after his younger died in a plane crash in Sonia is said to have resisted his entry into politics but once the decision was she supported speaking fluent she campaigned for him in his impoverished parliamentary constituency in the she stomped through the distributing Medicine and blankets to gathering sup port for him against his Menaka the estranged daughter inlaw of the Gandhi the two women do not May be from a foreign country but her her her ways Are so much like said a villager in the District where peasants fall to the touching her feet and offering but controversy has attended the retiring first in 1983 she gave up her italian passport and became an Indian citizen after opposition parties charged that As a foreigner she was a Security risk to the even each time an italian company is awarded a major Indian government there is talk of the italian connection and opposition politicians suggest that she or her family pulled strings allegations firmly denied by s a photo Indian Leader Rajiv Gandhi and wife july 1985 the stars and stripes Page 13