Soviet Union:Dear Editor: You're Fired. Signed, Mikhail Gorbachev

Victor Afanasyev and Vladislav Starkov are both journalists, but they're unlikely ever to share a byline. As editor of the gray-tinged daily Pravda, Afanasyev, 66, has been less than eager to rush into print any of the startling revelations or investigative spadework that has become the hallmark of glasnost. On the other hand, Starkov, 50, oversees the weekly tabloid Argumenty i Fakty, whose sharp prose and readers' letters more often than not dwell on the changes sweeping the country, and helped make the paper the most widely read in the Soviet Union. Yet last week both men faced pressures far worse...