From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

Who controls the notorious Black Berets? That question has intrigued Moscow correspondent James Carney for months as the Soviet government has frequently denied responsibility for the brutality of the paramilitary unit's actions against the Lithuanian independence movement. Last month the Soviet Interior Ministry granted Carney permission to interview Major Boleslav Makutinovich, who commands the Black Beret unit in Vilnius. But when Carney arrived earlier this month at the group's heavily fortified base, he found himself at the business end of an automatic rifle wielded by a sentry who told him to come back the next day. He did. In the World section this week, you will find his interview with the man whose troops are suspected of involvement in the murders of seven Lithuanian border guards last month.

Carney, who majored in Russian and East European studies at Yale and speaks fluent Russian, worked as a summer intern at TIME in 1986. He spent part of the following year studying in Leningrad, where he got a close-up look at the first wave of Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts at reform. Starting in 1988 as TIME's Miami bureau chief, Carney covered Gorbachev's trip to Cuba and the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. All the while he yearned to return to the Soviet Union. Events there seemed to be moving so fast, he recalls, "I used to be worried that all of the important changes would run their course before I could get back there."

But perestroika has proved to be an epic with many chapters. Based in Moscow for the past year, Carney has covered the backlash against the Soviet President's liberalization. Last January he was with Lithuanian demonstrators at the television tower in Vilnius when Soviet army paratroopers opened fire nearby, killing 15 civilians. Says Carney: "For the first time, it seemed clear that Gorbachev wasn't entirely in control." That sense was reinforced during Carney's visit to the Black Beret base. Says Carney: "To a man, the Black Berets spoke of defending the Soviet system to the end, regardless of Moscow's policies. Though Gorbachev is pressing forward with reforms, peaceful transformation in the Soviet Union is far from guaranteed."