From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

As our journalists in three cities set out to cover the astonishing events in the Soviet Union last week, none of us could guess the outcome. We were certain of one thing, though: our staff has an extraordinary wealth of expertise on the subject.

Heading the team in Moscow was bureau chief John Kohan, who studied Russian in the U.S. and Leningrad, and has reported and written stories on the Soviet Union since 1975. On hand too were correspondent James Carney and reporter Ann Simmons, both Russian speakers. During the unsettling days and nights after the announcement of the coup, invaluable assistance came from the bureau staff -- secretary Emma Petrova, driver Boris Tyunin and office researcher Yuri Zarakhovich, the first Soviet citizen to file for TIME as a formally accredited reporter.

In New York City we had senior writer Bruce Nelan, a former Moscow bureau chief who wrote our 1989 Man of the Decade cover story on Gorbachev. Working with him were assistant editor Brigid O'Hara-Forster, whose research about Soviet politics is given added breadth by her abiding interest in the works of Chekhov, and Kevin Fedarko, who has a master's in Russian history and literature. In Washington, Strobe Talbott and David Aikman provided insights gained doing numerous Soviet stories. Since 1969, when he was an intern in the Moscow bureau, Strobe has made nearly 30 trips to the Soviet Union. His story on Gorbachev and the hard-liners in this week's special section draws on reporting from a visit there early this summer. Talbott is collaborating with historian Michael Beschloss on a book about the Bush-Gorbachev relationship, to be published next year. Aikman, who has a Ph.D. in Russian and Chinese history, has followed Boris Yeltsin since 1989 and has twice interviewed the Russian leader. When he visited New York City in 1989, Aikman recalls, "I once had to practically leap upon his back to stop him from crossing Second Avenue as a garbage truck bore down upon the intersection. He turned around gratefully, grinned, and said, 'The KGB would not be pleased to know that you may have saved my life.' " Instead, as our story explains, Yeltsin's career is prospering.