An astute observer of the Soviet Union, Bill Daniels collects here his observations of political change in the USSR over a quarter century. Complete with a new introduction and conclusion and explanatory notes, these essays offer a moment-by-moment picture of the decline and fall of the Communist state. Capturing the weaknesses of past and present regimes, while illustrating the difficulties of anticipating the course of events in Russia, Daniels's commentaries will have a central place in the ongoing debate about the failure of Western scholarship to predict the Soviet collapse and its aftermath.