Perestroika made me more aggressive. It is good on the one hand, bad on the other. There is more uncertainty now. You get money – fine, you don’t – then how will you feed your family? Old ladies, who spent their lives building socialism, are now dying under capitalism.

I have no opinion on Gorbachev. But someone needed courage to change the country so much. He should at least be praised for opening the Iron Curtain.