How did the Soviet Union fall? The story explores its history as a system that was designed to fail. The discussion is staged at a time before the Soviet Union collapsed, when its existence could have been saved on the basis of principles that were not sufficiently understood at the time, just as the entire western economic, financial, and political system is presently collapsing for the same reason. The Soviet Union was destroyed from within by a silent war that the leaders did not recognize, and so is the West falling into the same trap. The trap should be obvious. War has a single purpose; to enable the rich to steal from the poor, such as in wars over oil. That's the song of empire. For this purpose, progressive cultures are destroyed to protect the thievery system of empire. World Wars have been staged for this purpose that have destroyed entire continents and fostered impotence for the protection of empires. For this still-continuing purpose, Russia and China are declared in the West the #1 enemy, slated for destruction with nuclear war. The fall of the Soviet Union could have been prevented with advanced humanist policies, but it wasn't, for the lack of interest. Likewise, the fall of humanity can still be prevented, but it may not, for the same reason, with ensuing tragedies that very few people may survive, if any. That's the story of our history. The frame for the story presented in this book, is a fictional, international peace conference organized by the youth of the world, convened in Russia in a city on the Black Sea. The entire story unfolds onboard of a cruise ship. The story presents one of the scenes of the Kaleidoscope of human superlatives that keeps on turning. In the Kaleidoscope Project, the selected stories are gems of numerous types. The one presented here is from Book 2, The Ice Age Challenge, of my epic series of novels The Lodging for the Rose. The Kaleidoscope stories are presented separately, because their specific focus has become increasingly important in the world, for our future. As one might expect, many of the vistas are precious in themselves, so that it soon became apparent that quite a number of them stand on their own as complete stories and are important to raise up a specific focus that is of critical importance. I cherish these stories. Consequently, I started to share them in different forms, including now in printed form. The separate printing also allows a larger type face to be used.