Irina, you never shared any stories about Mikhail Gorbachev even though you were one of the closest people to him. Spatially, at least. Why is that?
Well, my profession is not very public, a stenographer. But later my position got a more respectable ring to it: assistant of the Secretariat of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When I got the job in 1983, we were warned to dress modestly and not blabber too much. We were also under scrutiny — we often had to work with confidential documents.
How did you get into the Central Committee [of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]? You probably couldn’t just make your way there with no credentials?
No, of course not. We were tested for a while, around two months. I had great qualifications: I went to a typography and stenography school, then graduated from a special stenography course and then from the editorial faculty of the Polygraph Institute without any breaks from work. Before the Central Committee, I worked in the Communist magazine for six years, my mother’s friend got me the job.
How did you join Gorbachev’s team?
When Gorbachev was elected General Secretary, he revamped his office, and they needed typographers and stenographers. It was a very individual thing: you need to get used to the dictation manner and discern the handwriting.
He probably also liked you for your modesty.