Enthusiastic Crowds Shout ‘Viva Raisa’ at Ceremony in Sicily
MESSINA, Sicily — Tens of thousands of cheering Italians gave Raisa Gorbachev an emotional welcome today when she visited Messina to honor Russian sailors who saved 1,000 lives during an earthquake in 1908.
The Soviet First Lady laid a wreath at a plaque dedicated to the sailors of Imperial Russia who brought the first relief to the devastated Sicilian island port 81 years ago.
Crowds of people, including Roman Catholic nuns waving Soviet red flags, lined the streets. Many shouted “Viva Raisa” and stretched out their hands to touch the woman dubbed “the Queen of Kremlin Chic” by the star-struck Italian press.
The ceremony, during a three-day state visit to Italy with her husband, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, contrasted with trips to luxury shops in Paris and Geneva in 1984 and 1985 that attracted criticism amid Soviet austerity.
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