‘A brave man — but will he succeed?’ On 19 September 1989, Fritz Behrendt, a Dutch cartoonist originally from Berlin, illustrates the speculation of the United States and the European Community (EC) as to the chances of success of the political and economic reform programme known as perestroika introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Taking inspiration from Greek mythology, Fritz Behrendt depicts Gorbachev (on the right) as Hercules, who has to battle the Hydra, a monster with many heads, one of which is immortal. Here the Hydra symbolises the cumbersome bureaucracy of the Soviet system that has to be overcome.