From the Publisher

By Robert L . Miller

Glasnost may mean greater openness in the U.S.S.R., but it isn't every day that you can drop in for tea with the Soviet Foreign Minister. But last week Moscow bureau chief John Kohan and correspondent Ann Blackman did, joining Eduard Shevardnadze in his seventh-floor Kremlin office for tea and his first interview with an American magazine. At one point Shevardnadze, graciously offering a cup to Blackman, allowed that by his own count, he has appeared in TIME on at least 40 occasions.

With this week's cover stories, make that at least 41. From the inception of perestroika, our Moscow bureau has chronicled the stunning make-over of the Soviet Union. For Blackman, who arrived in 1987 after 17 years in Washington, delving into Gorbachev's odd combination of internal imbroglios and dynamic foreign policy has proved the opportunity of a lifetime. Says Blackman: "For a reporter today, Moscow is the big rock-candy mountain. There's a story on every street corner." Last month she and Kohan scoured the country to report TIME's special issue on the "new" Soviet Union. Shevardnadze called it a "fitting title." The 3,000 copies of the magazine available in Moscow and Leningrad sold out in a couple of days.

The Shevardnadze interview was the culmination of a week of unprecedented access to the Foreign Ministry. The two spent 15 hours interviewing eight top diplomats and aides who offered insights into the workings of both the Foreign Ministry and Shevardnadze himself. In fact, the Soviets have become gluttons for glasnost. One session, conducted in both Russian and English, took eight hours. Says Blackman: "It was John and I who finally suggested we call it a day." At another interview with a top Shevardnadze staffer, Blackman was locked in the room to hear everything the official had to say. "We can't take any chances," an aide explained sheepishly. No problem. We never run away from a good story.