A Russian-American reader of ours sent me a few photos. I happen to mention, in today’s Impromptus, that Mikhail Gorbachev recently celebrated his 80th birthday. (Yesterday, actually.) Our reader wanted to take me for a little stroll down Memory Lane — and I thank her.

This photo shows Gorbachev reviewing troops with Fidel Castro, the Beast of Havana (and a darling of the American Left — particularly of the Hollywood Left, I would say). The picture appears to have been snapped in Cuba. This one seems to have been taken in Moscow, or at least Russia. We see Gorbachev with Castro and the always fun-loving Andrei Gromyko.

But this is the pièce de résistance: Gorby in the midst of kissing Erich Honecker (I believe), the Soviets’ East German stand-in. I think there might have been some tongue in this particular episode. Not sure. Looks serious.

Remember when Carter kissed Brezhnev in Vienna? This sort of action once caused Bill Buckley to write a column called “For Moderation in Osculation.” I don’t believe there was tongue in Vienna. But Gorby and Honecker: hot.

P.S. I suppose I have to say that I have respect for Mikhail Sergeyevich, and — certainly more than most American conservatives — acknowledge and hail his role, however unintended, in bringing down the Soviet empire. (These little caveats, or qualifications, are such a pain — and time-consuming — but they preempt some blogospheric crap.)

P.P.S. In an interview with me last year, Yelena Bonner said she had “an incomparably more peaceful attitude” toward Gorbachev than she once did, and that “I respect Mikhail Sergeyevich personally.”