About the book: 1998 / Karen Nersesovich Brutents. Thirty years on Old Square. M.: “International Relations”, 1998. The author is the former first deputy head of the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee and adviser to the President of the USSR, a contemporary of “Stalin’s victories”, Khrushchev’s “thaw”, Brezhnev’s counter-reformation, Gorbachev’s perestroika, Yeltsin’s Russia. He speaks knowledgeably about what the USSR policy achieved in developing countries, about its place in the struggle between the two superpowers, its growing ineffectiveness as the regime and its leadership decayed. For the first time - and without embellishment - it tells about the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee, its structure and functions, its people. The reader will learn how the decision on the Afghan campaign was actually made and how influential forces in the US administration did everything to “not frighten off” this decision. Throughout his book, the author tries to answer the question of why the Soviet Union collapsed. The book is addressed to those who are interested in our politics and our recent past; it is also intended for the general reader.