Jim and Chris talk about Chris's time in Moscow in the mid-90s working as a journalist for the Moscow Times and his experiences of the new post-Soviet society. They then look at the similarities and differences between the situation in the USSR in the mid- to late-80s and the situation in the US today.This discussion is prompted partly by the rash of articles discussing Barbara Walter's book How Civil Wars Start, see for example the review in the New York Times here,  and this more sceptical piece in the same paper.Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (available here) is a remarkable window into what it was like to live through the collapse of the Soviet Union. I can't recommend it enough.Follow us on Bluesky and Substack

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