Following the tradition of Moscow correspondents who, on completing their tour, produce books of personal experience, observation and analysis, Dusko Doder of The Washington Post gives us his picture of the U.S.S.R. in the early 1980s, focusing on the struggles that marked the shifts in leadership between 1982 and 1985. Much of the book deals with the new atmosphere and initiatives under Andropov, evidence of the turn to reform now going forward under Gorbachev. Nothing very different from the news reports available at the time, but Doder did have good Soviet contacts in and out of government.