Raisa Gorbacheva Raisa Gorbacheva Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva ( "Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachyova", , Титаре́нко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Russian activist 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. Raisa Maximovna Titarenko was born 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 originally from Chernigov in Ukraine, and his Siberian wife, Alexandra Petrovna Porada, originally from Veseloyarsk. She spent her
Rosa Raisa were rumblings backstage that something like this might happen, but the artists were never told this officially; therefore, they were somewhat, but not totally, surprised. There is anecdotal information that Puccini on his deathbed had asked Toscanini to make such a gesture at the premiere, but this is not possible to confirm. On 4 November 1929, Raisa was awarded the honor of opening the new Chicago Civic Opera House in a performance of "Aida" (broadcast throughout the USA) with a stellar cast personally selected by Civic Opera president Samuel Insull, the Chicago industrialist who later ran foul of the law.