Tha Iain Moireasdan a' cluinntinn bho Hedda Nicleòid mu a beatha na h-oileanach anns an Ruis ann an 1989 's 1990, àm far an tàinig crathadh air poilitigs taobh sear na Roinn Eòrpa agus an Aonaidh Shovietaich. Bha Hedda ann am Moscow ag ionnsachadh Ruisis mar phàirt den cheum aice an Oilthigh Ghlaschu. Bha an Ruis an uairsin mar phàirt den Aonadh Shovietach agus tha i a' bruidhinn air na sreathan dhaoine air taobh a-muigh bùthtean-bìdhe agus mar a bh' aice ri ùine a bhucadh airson fònadh dhachaigh. Ach bha cùisean ag atharrachadh fon Cheann-suidhe Gorbachev a bha airson barrachd saorsa poilitigeach agus eaconomach a cheadachadh. Chunnaic Hedda an companaidh Ameireaganach McDonalds a' fosgladh a' chiad taigh-bìdh aca ann am Moscow ann an 1989 agus nuair a thuit Balla Bherlin san aon bhliadhna, bha e a' comharrachadh deireadh an t-seann siostam Comannaich air taobh sear na Roinn Eòrpa.

John Morrison hears from Hedda Macleod about her life as a language student in Moscow from 1989 to 1990, a momentous period heralding major political and economic changes in Communist Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Hedda was in Moscow learning Russian as part of her language degree at Glasgow University. Russia was then part of the Soviet Union and she glimpsed life under communism and talks about the queues outside shops and having to book a time to phone family in Scotland. But the country was changing under President Gorbachev, who advocated greater political and economic reforms. The fast food company McDonalds opened its first restaurant in Moscow. More significantly, the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the end of the old Communist system in Eastern Europe and preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union. Show less