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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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1990-09-22
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FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 6
Every so often, a story is so important, so dramatic, that TIME
devotes a special issue to the subject. Such is the case this week
as we explore how Mikhail Gorbachev has transformed the Soviet
Union -- and how much remains to be done. Led by Moscow bureau
chief John Kohan, eleven reporters and five photographers spent
four months crisscrossing the country in pursuit of their stories.
"Wherever we went, glasnost opened doors for us," says Kohan.
"There are opportunities for journalists that would have been
unthinkable a few years ago."
What also distinguishes this issue is the unprecedented
involvement of Soviet journalists and writers. We asked Vitali
Korotich, editor of Ogonyok, a leading light of glasnost, to write
about the pitfalls of the new Soviet journalism. Mikhail
Zhvanetsky, one the country's most popular and outspoken comedians,
penned a monologue for Show Business. Yuri Shchekochikhin, who
works for Literaturnaya Gazeta, co-wrote a piece examining
perestroika in the provinces. The Books section features an excerpt
from The Place of the Skull, the latest novel by one of Gorbachev's
favorite authors, Chingiz Aitmatov. Andrei Sinyavsky, an emigre
writer who spent almost six years in a Soviet labor camp,
contributed an essay reflecting on whether he would move back to
Gorbachev's U.S.S.R.
Vsevolod Marinov of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences organized
the most extensive Soviet poll ever conducted for a U.S. magazine.
Since telephone surveys are relatively new in the Soviet Union,
respondents were given a number to call to verify that those asking
the questions were legitimate pollsters. "We received only about
a dozen call-backs," says Marinov. "Some of them assumed we were
officials who could help them with their problems. One woman even
wanted her leaking radiator fixed."
During a session with Boris Yeltsin, the party-boss-turned-
populist, photographer Ted Thai found it impossible to get him to
smile. "So I went over and tugged on his cheek to show him what I
meant," Thai recalls. The tactic may have been unorthodox, but
Yeltsin is hardly the orthodox Soviet politician.