In 1912, Russia experienced a flowering of liberalism and tolerance that placed it at the forefront of the modern world: women were fighting for the right to vote in the elections for the newly empowered parliament; Russian art and culture were the envy of Europe; and there was a vibrant free press and intellectual life. But a fatal flaw was left uncorrected: Russia’s exuberant experimental moment took place atop a rotten foundation. The old imperial order, in place for three hundred years, still held the nation in thrall. Russian journalist MIKHAIL ZYGAR, author of the book The Empire Must Die, will talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning author LIAQUAT AHAMED about how the collapse of the Russian Empire changed the course of the twentieth century and eerily anticipated the mood of the twenty-first and whether democracy can ever exist in modern-day Russia.