Robert Daniels collects here his observations of political change in the USSR over a twenty-five-year period. Complete with a new introduction and conclusion and explanatory notes, these essays offer a moment-by-moment picture of the decline and fall of the Communist state. Capturing the weaknesses of past and present regimes, while illustrating the difficulties of anticipating the course of events in Russia, Daniels's commentaries will have a central place in the ongoing debate about the failure of Western scholarship to predict the Soviet collapse and its aftermath. Specialists, students, and general readers alike will find his work a stimulating point of departure for considering the Soviet and post-Soviet paradox.