Moscow: A View From Below

Visiting Moscow after an eleven-year absence I was struck first by the freshness in the political atmosphere. The impact of glasnost is palpable: People talk in new ways, no longer tremulously, about the deplorable conditions in their country. The culture of deception and fear, lies and whispers, has given way to openness in public and private discourse. The mass media have become so racy that few still listen to “the voices,” as foreign Russian language broadcasts are known in the USSR. The Voice of America, once an object of official vilification, has been invited to open an office in Moscow.

A steep increase in subscriptions to newspapers and journals and the long lines at kiosks indicate that people take a lively i...