The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later. Indeed, the Chernobyl catastrophe was an historic turning point: there was the era before the disaster, and there is the very different era that has followed.
20年前这个月发生的切尔诺贝利核事故可能成为五年之后苏联解体的真正原因，其重要程度甚至要超过我所开启的改革事业。切尔诺贝利灾难的确是一个历史转折点，其前后的两个时代迥然不同。