Russia [antikvár]

Foreword I set out for Moscow without thinking specifically of a book; it seemed sufficiently overwhelming to try to cover the Soviet Union for The New York Times. But as I worked there day to day, catching the most visible, transitory events for the headlines, I began to develop a strong feeling that, despite the broad opportunities for reporting provided in a newspaper like The Times, something was being left unsaid. Gradually this sense grew into a driving need to write in a more coherent and, hopefully, more durable manner on the themes of Soviet life, on the values that shaped the society as it entered the last quarter of the twentieth century. I wanted to look beneath the surface, past the leadership changes, dissidents' trials, economic statistics, and diplomatic negotiations, to dimensions of attitude and culture where the task was not so much to answer questions as to ask them, to find the right points of curiosity and wonder, and to give them reasonable voice. IX