Changes in Russia

Your series on “Stories That Shaped the Century” was fascinating, but the issue you ran on Dec. 26 featuring your front page on Oct. 28, 1993, was rather ironic. The headline read “13 Fires Ring Southland.” Fires can be tragic, but the one story on your front page that had lasting meaning was headlined “Yeltsin Signs Guarantee of Private Land Ownership.”

How Russia went from communism back to capitalism in this past century is a tremendous tribute to the right to own property, which our national forefathers made sure we had when they created our Constitution.

WILLIAM C. JOHNSTON

Pasadena