[CaliforniaCon]

I would highly recommend that EVERYONE here go back to the seventies and read the fantastic book, The Russians, by Hedrick Smith. I read it before my first trip there in ‘77 and it was SO helpful and eye-opening.

Mr. Smith wrote a sequel after the offical ‘fall’ of communism, but you all should really read The Russians, now in paperback.

[andy58-in-nh]

I read it back then, too (I was in college at the time - dating myself, I know). I also picked up The New Russians (the follow-up) back around 1990, and it helped explain the social realities behind the collapse of the Soviet state. As implausible as it would have seemed back then, we're heading in the opposite direction. At least until November...