TV & VIDEO - July 18, 1988

From the “Tools of Glasnost” file: A 47-minute, Soviet-made documentary on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, from which it is learned that Gorbachev’s family was so poor during World War II that young Mischa missed three months of school because there was no money for shoes for him, was broadcast on the state-run Polish TV network during Gorbachev’s recent visit there. Narrated by a Polish announcer with Russian comments translated into Polish, the documentary showed a number of photographs of Gorbachev as a child and young man--including some with university student Raisa Maximovna Titorenko, whom Gorbachev later married--and later on, with his children. Interestingly, in a section showing Gorbachev meeting with President Reagan, the film’s background music abruptly switches to Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “My Way.”