A correspondent of the Moscow-based daily Moskovsky Komsomolets found Lyudmila
Ivanova recently in St. Petersburg. "Am I against sex? God forbid!" the
attractive dowager laughed.
Though she is not young anymore she is still very attractive and happily
married to her fourth husband. Her sensational statement of nearly two decades
ago could have made her a celebrity, but she has kept a low profile. Still, in
her life she has met many famous people including Yuri Gagarin, the popular
singer Alla Pugachyova, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, and actor Oleg
Yankovsky.
She did not mean to say what she said then. Like millions of Soviet women, she
says, "I did not even know what sex stood for."
At the time when the first-ever US-Soviet television bridge was held Lyudmila
Ivanova worked at the Intourist Hotel in Leningrad. Vladimir Pozner, a veteran
television host, fell for the 43-year-old blonde with an enormous bow in her
hair at first sight and invited her to participate.
It had been agreed by both sides - the US and the Soviets - that ordinary
people would take part in the event - common people off the street. Needless to
say, Moscow ignored that clause.
Her impeccable reputation and employment as a hotel clerk (subject to
round-the-clock KGB control) left no doubt that she would behave decently.
An hour before the bridge the host announced a list of questions they could
expect from the US women. The audience reeled in anticipation of inquiries such
as, say, "What is the size of your husband's penis?" Ivanova laughs. All the
women in the Russian studio had dressed up for the occasion. Lyudmila had
bought new shoes and wore a long skirt, as the organizers had warned them all
against baring their knees.
All those invited had tons of jewelry on, magnificent evening gowns and had had
their hair done specially at the hairdresser's.
The Americans failed to toe the line. We were shocked to see that half of them
were black, some wore torn jeans and old T-shirts, Lyudmila recounts.
After a short exchange of questions a black lady from the United States
announced, pointing her finger directly at Lyudmila: "You must stop sending
your children to the war!" clearly referring to events in Afghanistan.
"Therefore, you should stop giving birth! Stop having sex with your men!"
"I was so outraged I shot back: 'When there was war in Vietnam you had twice as
many boys born and you still slept with your husbands. Besides, there is no sex
in this country, there is love!'"
The bridge was not broadcast live and what remained of Lyudmila's statement
was: "There is no sex in the USSR"
"Although, honestly speaking I did not even know the meaning of the word 'sex'
then," she admits. Nobody used the word back in 1986, she adds.
But the phrase caught on. Thousands of placards and calendars declaring "There
is no sex in the USSR!" went on sale across the country though of course the
author could never have dreamt of any royalties.
These days Lyudmila is 63. She is happily married to her fourth husband and has
a daughter. She has met dozens of popular actors and politicians.
Her first marriage broke up after her husband, an ethnic Estonian whom she had
married at the age of 17, remarked once that it would be nice if Germany
occupied Estonia and killed all the Russians. She moved out the same day. By
the time she was invited to take part in the US-Soviet TV bridge she had been
widowed twice.
"I loved them all to distraction," she says of her husbands. "But I could not
stay alone for too long." So she got married again to "a professor, who is,
unlike myself, a very serious person."
She once met Yuri Gagarin, she recounts. The world's first man in space made
passes at her, she says. Ever faithful to her husband she refused to date him,
she says.
In 1993, she met Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa. That happened at a
restricted-access restaurant Lyudmila had opened in St. Petersburg in the late
1980s. She had invested all her savings in the business but with rent growing
daily she could hardly make ends meet.
"I complained to him: 'Mikhail Sergeyevich,' I said. 'I trusted you and set up
the Sudarynya [club] but now they are pushing up the rent each day. How come?'
He started talking. You won't believe it but at some moment I felt unwell and
retreated quietly. Later people in the know explained to me that I had
succumbed to hypnosis. It transpired that Gorbachev has a special oratorical
talent."
Other celebrities who visited Sudarynya were Maya Plistetskaya and Rodion
Shchedrin. She also met Valentina Tereshkova who used to head the Committee of
Soviet Women in Moscow. Lyudmila was an active member of the group.
These days, Lyudmila is involved in public activity. She organizes festivals
for orphaned children, parties for foreign tourists, and hosts concerts.
Whenever the question of sex arises she reiterates proudly: "There is no sex in
this country."
Although, of course, she knows better.
