Condoleezza Rice leads solitary life, but surprises the world with her slim figure and determination

No one has ever heard anything about Ms. Rice's friendship with women although everyone knows the names of her male friends

Stories about modern Cinderellas may have different beginnings, but they all end similarly, as a rule. She wins the heart of a handsome man, who is ready to sacrifice his life and give the whole world to his woman. The US Secretary of State, the world's most powerful woman, according to Forbes magazine, Condoleezza Rice, is not an exception from this rule. Ms. Rice has everything that a woman needs in her life. However, she does not have a man.

This is a typical dreams-come-true story, which could happen only in the USA. A common girl from Alabama used her talents, stubbornness and discipline to the utmost and made a sweeping political career. Condoleezza could play the piano at the age of three. It is worth mentioning that Ms. Rice's unusual name originates from the Italian musical term 'dolcezza' which translates as 'with tenderness.' She joined a church choir at the age of four and became a fluent reader when she was a five-year-old girl. The girl would wake up at 4:30 a.m., do her morning exercises and then start practicing music. Ms. Rice was leading a rather regulated life during her childhood. She always knew what she would be doing the next day, the next month and even the next year.

Condoleezza Rice was staying away from politics during her early years. Condi's parents were tuning a blind eye on the issue of racial discrimination in the USA and simply preferred not to pay any attention to it. African Americans did not have any voting rights back then, but Mr. Rice would persistently tell his daughter that she would be able to become the president of the United States if only she had a wish to work hard for it. Little Condi was doing her best.

Condoleezza Rice's contemporary biographers say that the Rices were an unusual family not only in terms of Alabama alone, but in terms of the whole nation. Ms. Rice's grandfather saved a certain amount of money in 1918 and decided to spend his work savings on education. Condoleezza Rice was sure from her early childhood that knowledge was the most important thing that a human being could obtain in life.

She finished college at the age of 15 and became a Denver University graduate at 19. Condoleezza Rice originally became a student of the department of music, but her plans drastically changed a year later. She moved to the department of politics and decided to dedicate her studies to the most exotic state that was mentioned on the list of options – the Soviet Union.

Ms. Rice's rivals say that she used her knowledge of Sovietology as a springboard for her future political career. They say that she supposedly realized at the age of 16 that relations with the USSR were highly important for the USA. Condi believed that if a person becomes an expert in the field of US-Soviet relations, he or she would be able to approach the doors, to which others will never be able to make even a step forward. Her dreams came true.

When 26, Rice upheld her dissertation on relations between the USSR and Czechoslovakia and even wrote a book on the base of those materials. The book did not pass White House officials unnoticed. US officials paid attention to another book by Condoleezza Rice, which was devoted to the era of the first and the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev. There were two things, which startled the US officials: Condoleezza Rice, a black woman, became a member of the white Republican Party. Secondly, Ms. Rice could speak Russian very well. Other American Sovietologists knew only two most common words in Russian – spasibo and pozhalusta (thank you and please). Condoleezza Rice, however, would start her working day reading a fresh issue of the Pravda newspaper.

When the father of the incumbent US president introduced Ms. Rice to Mr. Gorbachev during his official visit in Washington in 1989, George Bush honestly confessed that everything that he knew about the USSR he learned from Condoleezza Rice.

Like the majority of US citizens and people of other nations, Condoleezza Rice treated Mikhail Gorbachev with great respect. However, she made the US administration pay attention to the destroyer of communism, Boris Yeltsin. Mr. Yeltsin was not her type of a national hero, but he became one of the world leaders, whom Ms. Rice met in the very beginning of her political career. Since that time Condoleezza Rice became a figure of constant presence among most influential men on Earth.

When American journalists asked Condoleezza Rice to list all presidents, prime ministers, kings, sheikhs and princes that she has ever met, she fenced with a question and said that she would not like to be known for her friendship with the powers-that-be. It is noteworthy that no one has ever heard anything about Ms. Rice's friendship with women. However, everyone knows the names of her male friends with George W. Bush on top of the list, of course.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said once that he was unable to conduct negotiations about the regulation of the Middle East conflict in Ms. Rice's presence. The elderly Israeli premier gets confused when his eyes stop on Ms. Rice's slim legs!