Back in the U.S.S.R.

When the clock struck midnight to bring in the new year of 1992, most people around the world had only celebration in mind. Yet in Moscow, there was much confusion. A few days earlier, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had conceded political defeat, announcing that the U.S.S.R. would cease to exist at the end of December. A state that had challenged global capitalism since October 1917 and contended the Cold War in the name of communism after World War II would disappear. Gorbachev had inscribed his name in world history. The Cold War ended on his watch, and he helped set in motion a transition to democracy and a market economy for the nascent Russian Federation.

Some Westerners, too, felt disturbed by these events—even as they welcomed them. The doyen of Cold War literature, John le Carré, had made his mark by examining the darknesses of plot and counterplot by Soviet and British espionage agencies. Aware that events were taking the turf from his literary lawn, he had to turn to new spy-free subjects. He was not the only one forced to make a career adjustment. This was also the fate of a professional class of experts