The following extract from Margaret Thatcher‘s political memoir, The Downing Street Years, recalls her December 1984 meeting with future Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev:

“I now had to consider the next step in my strategy of gaining closer relations… with the Soviet Union. Clearly, there must be more personal contact with the Soviet leaders… I was keen to invite others and accordingly invitations went to several senior Soviet figures, including Mr Gorbachev. It quickly appeared that Mr Gorbachev was indeed keen to come on what would be his first visit to a European capitalist country, and wanted to do so soon…

The Gorbachevs drove down from London [to Chequers] on the morning of Sunday December 16th, arriving in time for lunch. Over drinks in the Great Hall Mr Gorbachev told me how interested he had been in to see the farmland on the way to Chequers and we compared notes about our countries’ different agricultural systems. This had been his responsibility for a number of years and he had apparently achieved some modest progress in reforming the collective farms, but up to 30 percent of the crops were lost because of failures of distribution…

It was not long before the conversation turned from trivialities – for which neither Mr Gorbachev nor I had any taste – to a vigorous two-way debate. In a sense, the argument has continued ever since and is taken up whenever we meet; and as it goes to the heart of what politics is really about, I never tire of it.

He told me about the economic programmes of the Soviet system, the switch from big industrial plant to smaller projects and businesses, the ambitious irrigation schemes and the way in which the industrial planners adapted industrial capacity to the labour force to avoid unemployment. I asked whether this might not all be easier if reform were attempted on a free enterprise basis… rather than everything being directed from the centre. Mr Gorbachev denied indignantly that everything in the USSR was run from the centre.

I took another tack. I explained that in the Western system everyone – including the poorest – ultimately received more than they would from a system which depended simply on redistribution… Mr Gorbachev, however, insisted on the superiority of the Soviet system. Not only did it produce higher growth rates, but if I came to the USSR I would see how the Soviet people lived “joyfully”. If this were so, I countered, why did the Soviet authorities not allow people to leave the country as easily as they could leave Britain? …

If I had paid attention only to the content of Mr Gorbachev’s remarks… I would have had to conclude that he was cast in the usual communist mould. But his personality could not have been more different from the wooden ventriloliquism of the average Soviet apparatchik. He smiled, laughed, used his hands for emphasis, modulated his voice, followed an argument through and was a sharp debater. He was self-confident [and] he did not seem in the least uneasy about entering into controversial areas of high politics. This was even more so in the hours of discussion which followed. He never read from a prepared brief but referred to a small note book of manuscript jottings. Only on matters of pronunciation of foreign names did he refer to his colleagues for advice.

His line was no different from what I would have expected. His style was. As the day wore on I came to understand that it was the style far more than the Marxist rhetoric which expressed the substance of the personality beneath. I found myself liking him…

As the discussion wore on it was clear that the Soviets were indeed very concerned about SDI [Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative or ‘Star Wars’ program]. They wanted it stopped at almost any price. I knew that to some degree I was being used as a stalking horse for President Reagan. I was also aware that I was dealing with a wily opponent who would ruthlessly exploit any divisions between me and the Americans. So I bluntly stated – and then repeated at the end of the meeting – that he should understand that there was no question of dividing us: we would remain staunch allies of the United States. My frankness on this was particularly important because of my equal frankness about what I saw as the President’s unrealistic dream of a nuclear-free world.

The talks were due to end at 4.30 to allow Mr Gorbachev to be back for an early evening reception at the Soviet Embassy, but he said that he wanted to continue. It was 5.50 when he left, having introduced me to another pearl of Russian popular wisdom… “Mountain folk cannot live without guests any more than they can live without air. But if the guests stay longer than necessary, they choke.” As he took his leave, I hoped that I had been talking to the next Soviet leader. For, as I subsequently told the press, this was a man with whom I could do business.”