Abstract

The following discussion of the situation in the Soviet Union as perceived by the author in two visits, in March?April 1991 and September 1991, was not written in the vain hope of presenting an up?to?date account of the changing events there. Rather, it is an attempt to begin to identify elements of continuity as well as change in the transition to postcommunism, and to assess both what led to the attempted coup and its defeat and factors bearing on the postcommunist future.