SUMMARY:

In his essay Evgenii Anisimov recalls his participation in perestroika. In particular, he discusses the way in which history was politicized and drawn into public debates, and the way in which professional historians attempted to cope with this situation. The narrative covers the time from the upsurge of interest in the works of Soviet writer Valentin Pikul’ to the roundtable in Voprosy Istorii in 1988.