This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
这里是美国之音慢速英语时事新闻节目。
December marks twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was the last Soviet leader. His reforms influenced the Soviet Union's fall.
今年十二月是苏联解体二十周年。戈尔巴乔夫是最后一任苏联领导人，他的改革影响了苏联的瓦解。
In nineteen eighty-five, Mr. Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was fifty-four years old - the youngest member of the ruling committee, called the Politburo, that voted him into power.
1985年，戈尔巴乔夫当选为苏共总书记，当时年仅54岁，是苏共政治局中最年轻的委员，这一执政委员会投票让他上台执政。
For the next six years, Mr. Gorbachev worked toward a series of reforms that radically changed the Soviet Union. His reforms included loosening press restrictions and releasing political prisoners and dissidents from jail and exile within the country.
在接下来的6年里，戈尔巴乔夫先生进行了一系列从根本上改变苏联的改革。他的改革包括放宽新闻出版限制，释放国内政治犯和持不同政见者。
One institution Mr. Gorbachev failed to reform, however, was the Soviet Communist Party. And it was people within the party, along with the leadership of the military and the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service, that attempted a coup against Mr. Gorbachev in nineteen ninety-one.
戈尔巴乔夫先生未能成功改革的机构之一是苏共。1991年，苏共人士、军队领导以及苏联情报机构克格勃试图发动一场反对戈尔巴乔夫的政变。
The coup failed. And the Soviet Union collapsed four months later. On December twenty-fifth, nineteen ninety-one Mr. Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president.
这场政变未能成功。四个月后，苏联解体。1991年12月25日，戈尔巴乔夫辞任苏联总统。
Russia has made major economic progress since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Incomes have increased sharply. But twenty years after demonstrations against communism, Russians are again taking to the streets. This time the demonstrations are not for capitalist revolution, but for democratic reform.
自苏联解体以来，俄罗斯已经取得了重大经济进步，收入大幅增加。但在反苏共示威20年后，俄罗斯人再次走上街头。这一次示威不是为了资本主义革命，而是民主改革。
Masha Lipman marched in the nineteen ninety-one protests. She is now an expert at Carnegie Moscow Center.
玛莎·利普曼（Masha Lipman）参加了1991年的示威活动。她现在是莫斯科卡内基中心的一名专家。
MASHA LIPMAN: "It's very symbolic that we are having this public activism on the rise exactly twenty years after the collapse of the USSR."
利普曼：“在苏联解体整整二十年后，我们这次公众行动主义的崛起具有很大的象征意义。”
In nineteen ninety-one the major concern was economic. Vladimir Ryzhkov, at the time, was trying to run a provincial city.
1991年的主要问题是经济。弗拉基米尔·雷日科夫（Vladimir Ryzhkov）当时正试图管理一个省级城市。
VLADIMIR RYZHKOV: "The economy was destroyed. Nothing worked. I remember we had meetings every day to discuss very simple questions: Where could we get coal? Where could we get kerosene? We even had a meeting to figure out how to assure the supply of bread and milk for the city."
雷日科夫：“经济被摧毁了，所有一切都停止了运转。我记得每天我们都开会讨论一些非常简单的问题：我们可以从哪里获得煤炭、煤油？我们甚至开了一个会，来找出如何保证城市中面包牛奶的供应。”
In the twenty years since the Soviet collapse, Russians' real incomes have increased. But democratic institutions have not kept up.
自苏联解体的二十多年中，俄罗斯人的实际收入有所增加，但民主体制没能跟上。
Public opinion expert Lev Gudkov says institutions did not evolve with Russia's consumer economy.
舆论专家列弗·古德可夫（Lev Gudkov）说，制度未能与俄罗斯消费型经济一同发展。
LEV GUDKOV: "Government is still vertical, it is not controlled by the society and in essence, despite all the changes, is built the same way it was built in the Soviet Union. And its base is mainly political police, criminal police, there is no independent court, prosecution and system of education."
古德可夫：“政府仍然是垂直的，它并不是由社会控制。尽管有所变化，但本质上政府的组成方式和苏联相同，主要基于政治警察、刑事警察，没有独立的法院、检察机关和教育系统。”
Next March, Russian citizens will elect a new president to replace Dmitry Medvedev. Former president and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin is expected to win. Russian President Medvedev is stepping down to make way for Mr. Putin's candidacy.
明年三月，俄罗斯人民将选出一位新总统以取代梅德韦杰夫。担任现任总理的前任总统普京有望胜出。俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫将卸任，为普京先生的候选资格让路。
Suspected cheating in the December fourth Russian parliamentary elections has caused the largest protests since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Activists say Mr. Putin's United Russia party illegally won a narrow majority. They want to throw out the results and hold a new vote.
12月4日俄罗斯杜马选举涉嫌舞弊，造成了自苏联解体以来最大规模的抗议活动。活动人士表示，普京的统一俄罗斯党非法赢得微弱多数。他们想要废除选举结果，举行新一轮投票。
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