Ten Years That Shook the World

Abstract

Goethe once said, "It passed as though it had never been: those who shook up Russia are exactly the same." I confess that sometimes I think he may be right. Perhaps it is true: the "Gorbachev era" never existed, nor the hopes that flared so brightly ten years ago—the fervor; the rush of excitement; the happy, festive energy that swept up if not everyone, at least the most mobile and responsive segment of that society. That would explain why the results of the last decade seem to bear little resemblance to the thoughts, the expectations, and the plans we had then.