For the first time Mikhaïl Gorbatchev opens his personal archives to the public. The reader participates in the negotiations between the head of the Kremlin and the other great leaders: François Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, George Bush... He experiences the moving dialogue between Pope John Paul II and the General Secretary of a party which has made atheism its profession of faith. Finally, the reader follows the intellectual, political and moral progress of a man who presided over the transformation and opening of the very system which created him.