cross out the end of the communist party of the soviet union i'm joined by ronald suny in and arbor he is a professor of social and political history at the university of michigan in princeton we have mark bystander he is professor of politics at princeton university all right gentlemen this is cross-eyed that means you can jump in anytime you want mark if i go to you first and princeton the primary reason why i'm doing this not only is it a twentieth anniversary of the end of the communist party of the soviet union but to remind people of the events of nine hundred ninety one and how much it really changed the world and how we how the world is moved on from one great epic conflict to maybe another epic conflict and we can throw in the economic crisis here what is the most important legacy of what happened twenty years ago in the country that i'm living in right now russia well i think for there is that there's a global legacy obviously the end of the cold war the end of the. vision of the planet within russia russia had been ruled soviet union had been ruled by a party state essential