米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫坐在豪华轿车的后座，轿车正驶过柏林墙边。

Михаил Горбачев сидит на заднем сиденье лимузина. Его везут мимо Берлинской Стены.

他（戈尔巴乔夫）不仅着眼于即将与里根举行的高层会，一项非常重要的共产党会议仅有一个月即将召开。

He(Gorbachev) has his eye on more than the impending summit meeting with Ronald Reagan. An unusually important Communist Party conference is only a month away.

赫鲁晓夫似的解冻也许是昙花一现，但在它第一次在苏维埃历史上开启了变革的可能性—一种被戈尔巴乔夫在 1985年利用的可能性。

Последовавшая за этим хрущевская оттепель, возможно, и была кратковременной , но впервые в советской истории была открыта возможность изменений – возможность, которой в 1985 году воспользовался Михаил Горбачев.

在另一方面，戈尔巴乔夫承认，他的既迂腐又专权的官僚政府是现代化最大的阻碍。因此这位苏联领袖迅速意识到，政治与经济改革必须齐头并进。

Mr. Gorbachev, on the other hand, recognized that his sluggish and authoritarian bureaucracy was the worst impediment to modernization. That is why the Soviet leader came more quickly to the view that political and economic change must go hand in hand.

阿富汗实为更难克服的困难。戈尔巴乔夫提议用一年时间完成撤军（美国认为是一项小小的让步），但拒绝订定开始撤离的日期，令总统与他的幕僚感到失望。

Afghanistan proved the tougher nut to crack. Mr. Gorbachev proposed to withdraw this troops over a12-month period, which the Americans took as a small concession, but he refused to set a date for the pullout to start, which disappointed the President and his staff.

戈尔巴乔夫和他克里姆林宫改革派盟友们，准备容忍，甚至鼓励温和的民族主义分子向中央控制挑战并要求独立。可是莫斯科自有理由觉得：在一个操多种语言，由102个民族组成的国家里，族裔之间的暴力则属过分。

Mr. Gorbachev and his reformist Kremlin allies are prepared to tolerate, even encourage, moderate nationalists who challenge central control and demand autonomy. But Moscow rightly feels that, in a polyglot country with102 different nationalities, ethnic violence is beyond the pale.