The Soviet Empire and my part in its downfall

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. What are you doing to celebrate? For those too young to remember, 1989 was a remarkable year. At the start of the year, the shadow of a nuclear war between the world’s two superpowers, the USA and USSR, was as dark as ever; at the end of the year, the Soviet Bloc was all but gone. It was a year of revolution and hope. What happened? The short and simplistic answer is the Soviet Union ran out of money. (A better a...