To Our Readers

By ELIZABETH VALK LONG President

WHEN JOHN KOHAN, OUR MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF, moved into his apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in 1988, he was pleased by its proximity to his office, just across the street. Little did he realize that his sixth-floor flat, on the opposite side of the Moscow River from the White House, now Russia's parliament building, would provide a window on history -- not once but twice. In 1991 Kohan watched reformers, led by Boris Yeltsin, defy a communist-led coup from barricades in front of the 19-story White House. Last week, camped out overnight in his living room the better to keep an eye on the building once again, Kohan was awakened by the rumble of tanks. "This time the building was being attacked by troops loyal to Yeltsin to prevent a communist putsch," says Kohan. "It was a reminder of just how full of irony Russia can be.

And of how demanding work there can be. Reporter Yuri Zarakhovich, who had spent the previous week vacationing in Italy after covering the siege of Sukhumi, in Georgia, returned Oct. 3 to find Moscow plunged into bitter fighting. He stopped off at home long enough to catch up on the TV coverage, then headed for the city center, where armed clashes outside the Ostankino television center cut off the broadcast. Correspondent Sally Donnelly, who had recently arrived from Los Angeles to begin a tour of duty in Moscow, was in the midst of a leisurely get-acquainted drive around the capital when she and reporter Ann Simmons found themselves snarled in a riot-caused traffic jam. As Donnelly watched anti-Yeltsin rebels mix Molotov cocktails, she says, she was momentarily reminded of last year's upheaval in Los Angeles, which she covered.

Like Kohan, photographers Christopher Morris and Anthony Suau had a window on history -- but theirs was a viewfinder at ultra-close range. From armed demonstrations on Sunday to the final assault on the White House on Monday, they stayed with the street action -- at high personal risk. Both saw colleagues seriously injured; Morris suffered minor cuts from flying glass at the TV center. "The confusion was enormous," says Suau. "You never knew if the crowds would turn on you." The fruits of their courage are frame after memorable frame documenting Russia's second October uprising in two years.