Word: life
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...midweek Exxon, owner of the wounded tanker, admitted that the largest oil spill in U.S. history was spreading out of control; by week's end the slick covered almost 900 sq. mi. southwest of Valdez, Alaska, posing a deadly danger to the marine and bird life that teems in Prince William Sound. The story, a tale of unrelieved gloom with no heroes, resembled a Greek tragedy updated by Murphy's Law. Everything that could go wrong did; everyone involved, including the Alaska state government and the U.S. Coast Guard, made damaging errors; hubris in the form of complacency...
...citizens live in communal flats. If there is any choice at all in the stores, crowded with shoppers whom shortages have made ruble-rich, it is between the shoddy output of state enterprises and the higher quality -- and prices -- offered by co-ops. "There is more freedom now, but life is harder," a Russian friend said. Reality is a daily grind: commuting from cramped flats to unsatisfying work, sending children to decrepit schools, trudging from shop to dismal shop in hopes of finding even basics like laundry soap...
...start of the Brezhnev era of economic stagnation and recurring rounds of repression, I was assigned to TIME's Moscow bureau. I took up residence with my family in an apartment block reserved for foreigners and set out to cover what was, despite the depressing realities of Soviet life, a fascinating story. Then, on a May morning in 1970, I received a phone call from an official in the Soviet Foreign Ministry. "Your work here is finished," he said. There were no accusations, no explanations, just "Your work here is finished," and a departure deadline...
...control through fear, discipline through fear, debate regulated by fear, they are all still alive in the souls and experience of millions. Fear can grab typewriters by the keys and plug up ears and mouths. Yet this fear is fading, and the nation is slowly coming back to life...
Seventy-one percent agree that Gorbachev's reform program is encountering difficulties, and 20% think it has been braked, but only 1 out of 10 believes that perestroika is a deviation from Marxism-Leninism. Though 1 out of 4 says his material life has improved in the past three years, another 25% (and 34% of people over 60) say things have got worse...