Raisa Gorbacheva

Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva (; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Soviet and Russian activist and philanthropist who was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

She raised funds for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage, fostering of new talent, and treatment programs for children's blood cancer.

Early life and education Raisa Maximovna Titarenko was born on 5 January 1932 in the city of Rubtsovsk in the Altai region of Siberia. She was the eldest of three children of Maxim Andreyevich Titarenko, a railway engineer from Chernihiv in Ukraine, and his Siberian wife, Alexandra Petrovna Porada, from Veseloyarsk. She spent her childhood in the Ural Mountains, and met her future husband while studying philosophy in Moscow. She earned an advanced degree at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and taught briefly at Moscow State University.

The events of the Soviet Coup of 1991, which attempted to depose her husband from power, left a lasting scar on Gorbacheva, who suffered a minor stroke on the final day.

Legacy In 2006, her family founded the Raisa Gorbacheva Foundation, which raises money to support those with childhood cancer.