Sir Rodric Braithwaite (1932) headed the British diplomatic mission in Moscow in 1988–1992, was a witness and sometimes a participant in key events in the country on the eve, during and after the second, as he put it, revolution in its history. What are the reasons the collapse of the “Soviet empire” and the collapse of communist illusions? Who are they, the main characters of the historical drama, what are the motives for their actions or inactions, personal characteristics, ambitions and interests? What, exactly, is the “mystery of the Russian soul,” and does Russia have a special mission in history or is it doomed to submit to the imperatives of globalization? Are Russians capable of building a civil society and do they need it? Answering these and other questions in his book, the author comes to a fundamentally important conclusion: “Russia can hope to create a viable political and economic system. This will be a Russian model of democracy, significantly different from the American or even from the European model."