With the occasion of a global disarmament conference, a first acquaintance - a virgin look of a Westerner, Christos Giannaras, with the everyday life of Soviet citizens in the 80s. Moscow, Leningrad, different urban landscape, different mentality, different life. Surprising and penetrating gaze, paragraphs full of charm, crucial observations. In the second part of the book, under the title "Lessons without lessons", one will find insightful texts about the current impasses of capitalism. Ultimately, is totalitarianism two-faced?