A Legacy Overturned: Memories Of The Gorbachev Years And After

Near the dilapidated dormitory where I lived for a few months in 1989, close to the notorious Lefortovo jail in east-central Moscow, signs painted on the fence of a disused sports field, if memory serves, bore an upbeat slogan borrowed from the Olympics: "Faster, Higher, Stronger."

But to a foreigner in the Soviet Union at that time, things seemed to be headed in the opposite direction. Moscow was drab and dilapi