RED ALERT
The story is told in Russia about the late Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who wanted to impress his old mother from the Ukraine. First he showed her through his sumptuous apartment in Moscow. She said nothing. Then he drove her in his chauffeured black limousine out to his dacha in Usovo, showed her the marble reception rooms and seated her to a fine lunch of caviar and crab. She still appeared unimpressed. So he flew her in his private helicopter to his hunting lodge in Zavidovo, where a fire crackled in the huge fireplace of the banquet room. She seemed increasingly ill-at- ease. At last he burst out, “Well, Mama, what do you think?” She said with some hesitation, “It’s nice, Leonid, but what if the Communists come back?” Forbes, May 19, 1986, “Other Comments,” page 20.
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