"This is the Book of Mirdad as recorded by Naronda, the youngest and the least of his companions, a Lighthouse and a Haven for those who yearn to overcome. LET ALL OTHERS BEWARE OF IT."

So begins the Book of Mirdad, and this must be the only book in the world that actually warns the public not to read it! If it were any other book it would be a marketing trick. In this case it is not. In fact the warning is unnecessary; The Book will only be read by those who are meant to read it, those who are receptive to its universal message.

When I first read the Book about 30 years ago I was thrown into a frenzy of enthusiam and passed it on to all my friends. "This is IT!" I told them; and they all read a few pages and passed it back to me shaking their heads. So no, it's not a book for everyone. But for those who are open to its timeless wisdom it is a gem among gems. It is a classic among the gnostic and mystical literature of the world, and I am delighted to see that it is being reprinted this year.

Seldom have legend, mysticism, philosophy and poetry been so skillfully woven together. Addressing himself to the age-old problems of thre Whence, the Whither the Why and the Who of Man, the author seeks and finds the answers in Man himself.
Mirdad, the Teacher in the title of the book, would lead us from the unconsciousness of the divided self to the superconsciousness of the undivided Self. His sole aim is to "uncover God in Man" by ridding us of the sense of duality: the I and the non-I. The non-I - the ego, our everyday identity, is but a shadow which must be cast away in order to know the real self and the state of perfect balance.

The book must be read with an open mind; then, and only then, it can become a lighthouse and a haven. All other readers will close it, without understanding and without interest. Never mind.
If you liked The Prophet you might like this. However, Mirdad digs deeper than The Prophet and so this book can rightly be called the next step on from that other literary gem. The author, Mikhail Naimy, was a close friend of Kahlil Gibran and is also Gibran's biographer.

There are only two books I have read that are able to capture the spirit of life. One is Milarepa - Tibets Great Yogi. And this is the other.

His prose is more like verse through much of the text. His is Kahil Gibrans biographer, yet he surpasses Gibran. The text is elegant and he is able to structure the story to reflect spiritual truth in a manner Gibran cannot.

Where Gibran touches God , Naimy structures a path to God in language that surpasses even Gibran.

This is great stuff, it is unlikely anyone will be able to get hold of a copy and I am not letting go of my old yellow paged hardcover. But if you can get it - grab it!

Only love is real.

Apologies are due to all readers for the rather unconventional use of this space.

Dear Zaven

Please get in touch with me. I seem to have lost (Lost?) your email address.

Love and Light

Solomon

The Sveshnikov Sicillian is an extremely dynamic agressive opening which has been used by top grandmasters including Kramnik, Shirov and Nunn. Black sacrifices pawn structure for dynamic piece play, and the middle game strategies can be very rich and complex as a result. White usually tries to get a grip on the light squares, to try and reduce black's counterplay, whilst black will try and exploit piece play, usually by trying for a violent king attack. This book by Krasenkov who is a loyal exponent of this opening, provides up to date coverage of this defence, and can increase the black player's confidence in playing this opening. Indeed it is the possibility of such as razor sharp defences like this, that is prompting White players to chicken out with moves such as 2. c3 :-)

This is an excellent book. The author says that he loves this opening and it shows. Special features of this book include a separate chapter at the back with 40 important annotated games (see Brodsky-Kramnik 1991 for a violent treat), comments in the introduction on strategies and piece placement, etc, and a two-page index of variations with assessments right there. The only minor problem I have is that the lines contain so many sublines and variants I can almost get lost. You can't play this opening with NCO alone. There are just too many savage alternatives for each side. Which brings me to my last point - are you considering taking up this opening but are not too sure about it? Then be warned, this is not the opening for those who believe in weak squares! You need to be an aggressive player who loves piece activity and despises draws.

The book is written in a format of mass variations, followed in the last chapter with annotated instructive games. the lines are well detailed and complete. All you need to buy to learn the opening. For a reference book I recommend The Pelikan Sicilian, by Sveshnikov himself.

The RED ARMY is a good hastely review of the RCW from the Red Army view. I recommend it to all. However, some of the information is incorrect and OOB chart are wrong. The book is basically an extremely edited version of the Soviet encyclopedia "Civil War and Military Intervention in the SSSR". Many of the entries in Red Army are from the encyc. word for word and sometimes the best info is left out or conclusions incorrect. Granted the Osprey format does not have a lot of room for text. Its companion the White Army is more detailed where the Red Army is terrible general in detail. If you could see the source for the info you would understand what has been left out. I liked the book, but was left with more questions than when I started.

This is a rather nice volume (typical of most Osprey's Men-at-Arms series) that has one thing that stands out: the wonderfull colour plated illustrated by Russian artist Andrei Karachtchouk.The figures in his paintings---be they Russian Volunteer Officers, Former-Czarist guards, Ukranian nationalists, Islamic Basmachi rebels---are all full of character! This book will no doubt serve as a uniform guide to many modellers and wargamers out there!
The book itself is a rather "dry" read, compromising mainly of army lists for the different White Armies in the different fronts of the war in Russia; but nevertheless, the photographs and colour plates accompanying the text is outstanding!
Highly recommended for the modeller and wargamer, although others should look for a more detailed "in depth" book on the campaigns and overall history of the Russian Civil War.

The art in this ospery edition is really quite good. There is a great amount of attention paied to uniform details. The birsk 48 page read provided some useful insight into the structure of the White Army of the Russian Civil War such as there close collaboration with Kuban and Don Cossacks also the multi-layered nature of the anti-Bolshevik movement as a whole from the right wing monarchists to the arachist partisans that fought red and white. i really loved the plates on the black uniformed officers units. Buy it!!!

I read Sholokhov's 'And Quiet Flows the Don', Pasternak's 'Doctor Zhivago', Tolstoi's 'War and Peace', and Solzhenitsyn's 'First Circle' in the early 1970s.

The others were indeed memorable, but 'the Don' is burned into my mind's eye.

It paints a searing portrait of a vast, unforgiving steppe--then tears across it on horseback, leaving great waves of ethnic, political and personal upheaval in its wake.

I still smell the wheatfields in the wind and taste the black dust on my lips from the opening chapter.

I see villagers storm the home of one of their own and destroy his outlander wife for her foreignness.

I see an unhorsed cavalryman struggling to remove his bright blue Cossack breeches before capture in one of the Great War's opening battles with Austria, only to be plucked from danger at the last moment by the young Cossack who had stolen his wife before the war.

I hear the stolen woman, now become a fiery mistress, sobbing her heart out when the man whose child she bore leaves her at last for his own wife.

And after the firing squad's last volley in the closing chapter, I see a proud, condemned Cossack biting fiercely into his own shoulder, to make no sound as his blood pours out and stains the black steppe red.

In a quarter of a century, I still have not read a more powerful novel.

Mikhail Sholokov richly deserved his Nobel prize for literature. His literary work in "Quiet Flows the Don" is without doubt one of Russia's masterpieces. His ability to weave a complex and wonderfully graphic tapestry of cossack life before, during, and after Russia's October Revolution is remarkable. His descriptions of the land and the individual lives of the people inhabiting this area of Russia is visually stunning as I read the story images of the characters sprang to mind without effort. The reader will embark on a wonderful journey through a remarkable country at a critical time in human history. Sholokov style and prose is guaranteed to hold the reader captive. He truly is a worthy successor to Lev Tolstoy

Hailed as the best war novel to emerge from the Soviet, Sholokhov's epic has indeed solidified its position in world literature as a must read for those interested in the art of war. Yet, far more than a mere war novel, And Quiet Flows the Don, just as War and Peace had done, masterfully combines the men's martial vigor with the delicate sentimentalities that question war. The blend of peace fades into this gnawing passion in soldiers' bones as they march off to fight under some cause, a cause that has only become too hazy for name. Dedicated to the Cossacks who have resided by the Don for ages, Sholokhov follows a young Cossack's journey into the unknown terror of war. And Gregor Melekov's personal tragedy, blends w/ an array of Cossack characters: swindlers in love, Red Guards with a faith...the plot may appear too scattered at times, yet following Tolstoy's grand tradition to capture a supreme idea through the chasms of minute details, Sholokhov depicts the anguish of a people too wrapped up in honor, unable to cope with the nascent order of New Russia, regretful about allegiance to the Czar who ensured tensile peace, and ultimately lost to themselves as to "mistake each other for the enemies". We are taught that war does such to people, is peace to heal the wound then? I have yet to conclude this epic w/ The Don Flows Home to the Sea, but the glimpse of peace and yearning for tranquility have long glittered in the eyes of Gregor and his brothers/comrades, exhausted by struggles. A wonderful folk style book that brings one closer to the true picture of Cossack life--acquaint one w/ their lust, their yearning, their cowardice, and their courage.

This is simply the best analysis of the "Carnivalesque" and is a valuable preface to Rabelais' novel itself. Bakhtin's book alerts the reader of Rabelais to his (Rabelais') masterful use of language and explores the sources of medieval popular culture that served his purposes. I have enjoyed Rabelais with much deeper understanding having first read Bakhtin.

Bakhtin and Rabelais both negotiated cultural minefields to produce their works. Both deserve to be more widely read.

Good theory, if you're into it.

Take your time with this academic book and you will be rewarded. It rediscovers the spirit of the Medieval carnival. The tradition stemmed from ancient Greek and Rome and its function was to give a vent to people's death fear and anger over social injustice. "Everything was allowed" and for a short period of time the social taboos were erased. Fools and prostitutes were "crowned" to embody Kings, Queens, Pope, saints, monks and nunns. And the chosen ones were mocked, ridiculed, assailed and beaten and stoned and "dethrowned" and "impeached."

Is this tradition dead today? Think twice -- think David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and especially Howard Stern, and you will be amazed to find astoundig parallels between the past and modern times.

Anyone who likes a peek at life's little moments and trials will enjoy this book. Told with warmth and humor, it is a pleasure to read.

This is a novel about a divorced woman (whose name is never revealed) from Russia who comes to New York with her daughter. After some horrible, and extremely funny dating incidents (which acts as the introduction of the novel) she finally meets the man of her dreams. Only things don't turn out very good for her. A great eye opener for any foreign woman looking to get into the dating scene.

While I question the authors' English usage at times, this is a good book that fills a large gap in the history of the fall of the Romanov dynasty. Whether the authors meant to show Nicholas and Alexandra as two of the biggest baddies who ever drew breath is another story, not to mention Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, usually seen as the ill used mouse of the Romanov family [due to her biographer Ian Vorres] but here, refreshingly portrayed as she was probably was; conniving and devious, with both eyes fixed on the main chance!

Michael & Natasha is a moving story of the ups and downs of Imperial fortune. A couple who were clearly in love. Natasha's foundering fortunes in exile make heartrending reading. The authors tell the story in a straigtforward manner, and the narrative flows well.

One point the authors don't quite clarify is the fact that Natasha's claim on Nicholas and Alexandra's bank account in Berlin in the 1930's was made as the beneficiary of her late son, not because she was on equal footing with the other relatives. As a morganatic wife of a Grand Duke she could not inherit, but as the mother of Michael's deceased child she could. Her action galvanized Anna Anderson's supporters to request the withdrawal of the certificate of inheritance which led to the ensuing court case to prove that Anna Anderson was Grand Duchess Anastasia. The authors claim Mrs Anderson's action failed in 1961, but in fact the case was finally abandoned in 1977, not before it was ruled 'non liquet' [that is, unsatisfactory to both parties,] in 1970. Interestingly enough, it was the bank which held the funds who wrote to Mrs Anderson to warn her of the action. Could they but have known!

I think the book is quite well researched, as the authors have been able to avoid the traps that Massie fell into in Nicholas and Alexandra.

I've read this book twice now, and it all seems so sad. That Russia was governed by such an unstable woman and that no-one could have possibly foreseen the outcome of her actions throughout the 20th century and beyond. Least of all by the remainder of the Romanov dynasty.

As an avid fan of Russian history and letters, I was delighted by the publication of Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of Michael II, the Last of the Romanov Tsars, by Rosemary and Donald Crawford. I was first intrigued by Michael Romanov and Natasha Wulfert through Kyril FitzLyon and Tatiana Browning's superb pictorial volume, Before the Revolution: Russia and Its People Under the Czar, where the couple appears photographed together on the occasion of Natasha's birthday. Somehow, and despite the grandeur of their surroundings and attire -- the epitome of that majestic and romantic age -- they came across as very appealing and almost modern individuals. Their story is the moving saga of a love that was doomed, not merely due to differences in pedigree and status, but because of historic forces they (particularly Michael, with his unswerving belief in human kindness) unfortunately underestimated. Throughout this engaging work, the quality that most vividly comes across is the couple's deep and abiding love for one another -- a love that survived ostracism, political cataclysms, and, one is convinced, even the alleged finality of death. The lifestyle they exemplified, spent amid the grandeur of vast country estates, brilliant St. Petersburg salons, and the intrigues of the Romanov court, has been faithfully preserved by Russia's leading authors in enduring works of fiction, and, in fact, striking parallels exist between Natasha and Tolstoi's immortal Anna Karenina. That Natasha herself may have examined the similarities, with perhaps a mixture of dread and amusement, is a clear possibility, as she was a cultivated woman who, moreoever, moved in artistic circles. Status, rank, and privileged position notwithstanding, both Michael and Natasha reveal themselves, through letters and contemporary testimonies, as thoroughly decent human beings who found themselves (proverbially) at the wrong place and time in history, and whose love, courage, and integrity alone were no match against a harsh age. Foreknowledge of the events that conspired and ultimately triumphed over their hopes for happiness and, indeed, their very existence, is not a damper to the reader's obstinate hope that, despite history's well known verdict, they and their private world will endure. Natasha, noted for the beauty of her "sad eyes," perhaps always sensed that tragedy would one day overtake her, even when tangible evidence of that fact was still far in the future. Michael, an avid photographer, left behind a rich pictorial record of their brief time together, so as to capture and preserve moments that, in their poignancy, he perhaps sensed were too lovely and fragile to endure. Reading this excellent work of biography, one is again moved to sorrow by the fate of the Romanovs who, despite their political blindness, did not deserve the cruel and bloody end which, with rare exceptions, befell most of their lineage. If there is a flaw to the biography at all, it is that a story that was so consistently rich in intimate detail for nearly 400 pages is abruptly cut off with Natasha's acceptance of Michael's tragic fate six years after his disappearance in 1918. Her own later life, which encompassed nearly three decades, is quickly summarized in a few terse paragraphs that leave the curious reader somewhat disoriented. Though her own ending in poverty, loneliness, and illness is almost too disturbing to absorb after all she has had to endure, I believe Natasha (and those interested in her fate) deserved a more gradual and gentle farewell.

Rosemary and Donald Crawford present a little known adenda to the story of the Romanov Tsars. Their research and sympathetic presentation offers entrance for the reader into the great love story of Michael and Natasha. It quickly catches you up in a pace, all too fast, racing to a tragic finalle. The reader is plundged into the confusion and multiple currants of the Russian experience of the First World War and then, the following Revolution. You shout helplessly at the book, "flee for your lives!" during the short window that they had that opportunity. You pour over and over the wonderful pictures as you become more and more familiar with the characters. I was supprised at a new and revealing discription of Nicholas and Alexandra, showing them with all their weaknesses, bumps and warts. It was interesting that the brothers, Nicholas and Michael shared the trait of complete love and devotion to one woman. One wonders about the family dynamics that produced such a shared commitment. The book is another opportunity to examine the Russian capacity for ineptitude that still goes on today. In the sum, it is the account of a great love story, doomed by it's time.

Mikhail Tal's game collection is one of the best books ever written by a world champion, but I cannot recommend this edition and here's why: Cadogan Books always fall apart! Regardless of the size of the book, I cannot get through a Cadogan book without half the pages falling out. The pages started falling out before page 80 of this 496-page book. Tal is probably the best writer of all the world champions, but do you really want to pay twenty-five bucks or so for a book that falls apart while you're reading it and has little or no resale value? Despite all that, if you don't mind reading your books in pieces, by all means buy this book. For you, I give this book 5 stars. Cadogan has several other great chess books and will surely publish more great ones in the future; but I won't be qualified to review them, because I will NEVER buy another Cadogan book again.

I believe a reviewer below has confused this book from 1994 with Tal's earlier and more well-known book titled Life and Games. Life and Games is 500 pages, but this book titled Attack with Tal is just under 200 pages and theres no problem with the binding. This was Tal's last book and remains uncompleted because it lacks a chapter on queenside attacks. However what is here is of extremely high quality- each chapter in Attack With Tal starts out with dozens of example positions, then a few complete games by Tal, and then some test problems. All in all there are 16 complete games by Tal, 36 test problems, and more than 100 positions. The diagrams were not labeled with which side to move, so I had to go through the book and check the diagrams off with a pencil- this way I can study the positions before reading the text and the solution. Editing the diagrams took me about an hour as I had to double check my work, but now I have a finished textbook on how to sacrifice. Excellent work and unfortunately Tal died before the book was published. Books that have been published recently about Tal are not as good as this one.

Even from reading the first few pages my abilities as an attacker on the board has gotten better. To those who ever wonder how he manages to find the right time to attack, this book will show you how. my only complaint is that the book does not discuss attacking on the queenside.

In the latter part of the 20th Century, Mikhail Gorbachev changed the history of the world. He undid the unhappy results of the Russian Revolution and its version of communism which imprisoned Russia and the Soviet Union in totalitarianism. Almost single-handed, he brought the nerve-wracking Cold War to a peaceful end.

In his determination to rid his country of the stultifying bureaucratic thought and practices which prevented the full flowering of an idealistic version of Socialism, he broke open old seals to let in light, fresh air and innovative thought. Alas, for Soviet-style communism, the new air and new light caused it to shrivel and die.

Little did Mr. Gorbachev realize the unintended consequences of his acts, first as General Secretary of the Communist Party and later as Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Little did he realize that when the ties of totalitariansim were loosened that the Soviet Union would disintegrate almost overnight.

Well, that's all history now -- and it is an historical "given" that Gorbachev's innovations of glasnost and perestroika stimulated thought and ambition and the courage to break from the past. His Memoirs are important -- not for the political analysis of why what happened actually did happen but for what they tell about the man Gorbachev, his ambitions for himself and for his country.

Some might find the day by day chronicle irritating slow, but I did not. In the first third of this long book, Mr. Gorbachev relates his life prior to his rise to power; interesting because he describes his rural, farm-life background which explains much about the man he ultimately became. The final two-thirds of his Memoirs describes Soviet history and Mr. Gorbachev's role in it during its last days.

Famous, historical personalities populate its pages. He was diplomatically kind in describing the U.S. presidents he had to deal with -- Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush. In contrast, he was severely critical of some of his Russian colleagues, particularly Boris Yeltsin who, not surprisingly, comes off like a crude, duplicitous vodka-swilling opportunist.

The world has not been the same since Mikhail Gorbachev's ascendency in the Soviet Union. His personal Memoirs are historically important and worth the time -- and occasionally -- the patient effort to read them.

Mikhail Gorbachev's writing has always been difficult at best. As a lawyer and a life-long aparatchik, never have more exciting ideas been presented in such bland and even obtuse prose. Nevertheless, Gorbachev's Memoirs are worth reading for anyone interested in the historic changes that brought an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. Even books by such knowledgeable Americans as former Ambassador Jack F. Matlock's Autopsy On An Empire, can't hold a candle to Gorbachev's detailed, olympian perspective on the events he was so instrumental in creating. Gorbachev also makes some remarkably candid comments about some other world leaders. As a man who has met most of the more powerful and successful people of his era, Gorbachev's Memoirs are well worth the effort. His book is indispensible for anyone interested in foreign policy.

Gorbashev presents and excelent and candid view into the recent history of Rusia. The book provides background knowlege with insight as to the reasons of Rusia`s economical, social and political problems. More importantly, after reading it, I have a deeper understanding as to the current problems that exist with the different countries that are a product of the desintegrated Rusia. To mention a very resent example, Kosovo. It is very easy to get caught in the "media web" and misunderstand other countries problems. There is no substitude for reading. I recommend reading the book, that is why I give it five stars.

To listen only to Ronald Reagan's avid supporters, one might conclude that his "Evil Empire" characterization of the Soviet Union and his massive military spending brought down communist rule, crumbled the Berlin Wall, ended the Cold War and saved the civilization from an inevitable conflict between the free world and its totalitarian enemies.

Not so, it becomes readily apparent in reading Mr. Gorbachev's book-length essay of his view of his country and of the world. His brief -- alas too brief -- history of that crucial time in the late 20th Century when he was General Secretary of the Communist Party, describes what happened while he was in the eye of the hurricane, when an upheaval in the Kremlin shook the world back to its senses. More important for serious students of history, Mr. Gorbachev tells why and how it happened.

When they came to power, he and his team knew that that the Soviet Union was feeble and that it needed a remedy; so they made a desperate grasp at "renewed thinking". They believed that by renouncing old beliefs and then by scraping away totalitarian decay they could bring about a cure. As history now knows, instead of a cure, they helped bring about its collapse.

"New thinking" gave birth to perestroika, a restructuring designed to save what Lenin had wrought. But then, the unexpected happened: a rebirth of nationalism stirred among the former Soviet Union's diverse ethnic populations. Finally, there was a simultaneous combination of rethinking, restructuring and nationalism which, like so many volatile chemical elements, resulted in the startling political implosion that brought the Communist empire to its knees.

It was not Mr. Reagan's threats, nor his Star Wars military program nor free-market competition from the outside world that changed history. Mr. Gorbachev makes a far better case that it was his administration's accurate diagnosis of the Soviet illness and their willingness to correct it from inside the Soviet Union which changed the history of the world, though in a way they did not intend.

After his too brief description of how he and his people tried to salvage the crumbing Soviet system, Mr. Gorbachev's writing bogs down. He ascends a pulpit and becomes a good-intentioned preacher, proposing non-controversial prescriptions for a better world. Disappointingly, in the latter part of his book he resorts to the obvious and falls back on over-used platitudes (such as:"we must advance through worldwide cooperation"). This section seems to have been written merely to puff out the work.

But, despite that minor short-coming, Mr. Gorbachev has earned and deserved his status as the dominant historical figure in the last quarter of the 20th Century. Anything written by him should not be ignored.

It was not that long ago when a person would have been thought foolish if they believed a former, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, would be writing books for anyone who was interested. It also is not very long ago that a person writing about any one of the dozens of issues in this book, would have spent many, if not their remaining years in a Siberian Camp. Since Mr. Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985 until he resigned as President in 1991, history has been made that will fill countless books for many years to come.

If there is one aspect of this book that I were to state as particularly fascinating it would be the transcripts from Politburo Meetings. Here are the same men expressing their thoughts in reality, when the same members of this inner sanctum of The Kremlin have been the foundation for spy and Cold War Novels for decades. If you are looking for "the evil empire", plotting the destruction of the West, you will be disappointed. The arguments and the positioning that continually deteriorate into political and personal feuds as the former USSR became the target of varied interests, reads like much of what we listen to and watch here with our elected officials.

Mr. Gorbachev is not an apologist for the Former Soviet Union. As someone who grew up with the USSR portrayed as the ultimate evil, the book requires a major change in perspective for the reader. A willingness to listen to a man that is extremely well informed, a Statesman, and a thinker far and away the superior to those who now rule the remains of the USSR, and its kleptocratic economy. I found his words to be remarkably candid when criticizing his own mistakes, and those of the USSR, and his criticisms of US Policy were more often valid than not. The world was divided into two camps with each side portraying the other as the ultimate threat for most of the 20th Century. The truth of course is never that simple. The stories shared by Mr. Gorbachev have another facet; they are absolutely terrifying at times.

It is not possible to comment on even a portion of his ideas. His writing is very dense, and takes getting comfortable with to complete the book. This may in part be due to translation issues, and there are footnotes where ambiguity may have been critical.

His narration of the USSR coming apart is not only fascinating, it was infinitely more complex than many care to recall, and the complexities are by no measure solved. The USSR was never a monolithic beast. It was composed of 15 distinct republics that were made all the more complex by forced immigrations, ethnic complications, and the arbitrary creation of borders. Borders that became not only critical but also disputed to the point of war, when the Union was dissolved.

During his book he covers the history of his country and the larger union, the problems then, and the challenges now. He also takes the reader through the removal of The Wall In Berlin, the first border disputes in Azerbaijan and Armenia, and all the drama of the Baltic States and their pronouncements of independence.

I certainly would not presume to rank what is important in this book, or what was of the greatest importance to Mr. Gorbachev. A critical passage for me was when he made the issues he spoke of personal for him, and those of his Countrymen.

He spoke of the sense of loss felt by citizens during the turmoil and breakup. He acknowledged why people on the outside may have their views, but as a private citizen he and many others had and do have their own. Because there is one fact you cannot get away from; the homes, countries, borders, and lives that were lead were the only life most had ever known. The times of the Tsars are none too fondly remembered either. So on the human level, not the handful that is destroying the remains, the pardoned thieves like Yeltsin and his Family and others, many miss the life they had. For many it was not only the life they knew, it was far better than the one they now live.

A remarkable opportunity to view History from a different perspective, by one of the men at its center.

As a reader from the third world (or emerging market?) I wonder why Gorbachev is so popular outside Russia. Since his economics reforms didn't work and his political ones didn't make better either. I only regard the former Soviet Union or the Soviet Space a giant jigsaw puzzle of nations and peoples who look each other up. It's worth noting its China-like inward spirit looking to West as like as a menace. Indeed I agree with Mr. Gorbachev on the Russias's future as a great partner in the world political scenario. For those who are trying to find desperately out a third way for the real socialism it's a worth reading Renato Zanola