Fully aware of the horrors perpetrated by Soviet leaders against their own citizens and knowing that the Soviet form of communism was deeply flawed, I was still more tolerant of the USSR than of the USA up until Boris Yeltsin oversaw the disbandment of the bloc in 1991 and then carried out dramatic economic reforms in the early 90s; I’d even wanted to expand my horizons with a visit to Leningrad from Helsinki while on an InterRail trip in 1983, but organising a visa while alr