Mikhail Gorbachev became active in his local church choir.
 As part of the Moscow political elite, Gorbachev and his wife now had access to better medical care and to specialized shops; they were also given cooks, servants, bodyguards, and secretaries, although many of these were spies for the KGB
The country was then experiencing the famine of 19301933, in which two of Gorbachev's paternal uncles and an aunt died

