Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.The Soviets: Half a World Lies Open
Leonid Brezhnev leaves a vacuum greater than the man who filled it
Suddenly the Soviet Union demands our scrutiny again: the deep chasm peered at impolitely by a world that, in every age, has found it impenetrable, benumbing. When Joseph Conrad wrote about the place, he called his novel Under Western Eyes because he wanted his readers to understand that his story was being told by an outsider, meaning that no non-Russian could ever hope to see into that particular heart of darkness with any clarity or certainty. It is the same now. With...
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