The action of Red Square is precisely dated; it begins on 6 August 1991 and ends on 21 August 1991. It is no coincidence that 18-21 August 1991 was the date of the abortive Russian coup, which threatened to topple the government of Mikhail Gorbachev and which was defeated, in part, by the dramatic resistance of the citizens of Moscow led by Boris Yeltsin. The novel's final scene, in fact, takes place on the steps of the "White House," where Yeltsin and his allies made their stand against the tanks. And the middle sections of the novel transpire in the recently reunited Germany (Munich and Berlin), and the ramifications of that reunion are also featured. Smith is, then, obviously interested in portraying the consequences of the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

These consequences include the declining standard of living in Moscow, the rise of organized crime in Russia (especially of the...