Eduard Shevardnadze

(2 of 2)

Borodin recalls Shevardnadze as an obsessive worker who often spent 14 hours a day at his office. A fitness enthusiast and jogger, Shevardnadze installed an exercise room and a sauna in his home and threatened to fire overweight officials unless they got into shape in a matter of weeks. Shevardnadze has said his hobbies are beekeeping and tending his private vineyard. He is well read in the Russian and Georgian classics and has even scribbled a bit of lyric poetry. Shevardnadze and his wife Nanuli, a journalist, have a daughter Manana, in her 30s, and a son Paata, in his late 20s, but as Nanuli once confided to Borodin, family life takes a backseat to her husband's work. "He's a true Leninist," she said of Eduard Shevardnadze, "a dedicated Communist."