DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm David Greene. It's a new year, time for a new perspective on Russia - or more of a fantasy. Decades ago, the Soviet Union imagined a glorious 2017. In the propaganda slides, nuclear-powered trains speed across a dam to Alaska; underground cities are built under the tundra; the USSR has defeated the Western imperialists, sent rockets to conquer the universe, while the last Westerners are doomed to a remote Pacific island. Not broadcasting from an island, this is MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.