Thursday night in the Knizhny Mir bookshop, guests sipped champagne to the sound of violins as Nicholas Daniloff autographed copies of the Russian translation of his book, "Two Lives, One Russia".


An ordinary book launch -- but when he left six years ago, Daniloff never dreamed that such an event would be possible. "I felt it would be totally impossible to return to Russia", he said.


For on Aug. 30, 1986, Daniloff, an American journalist covering Moscow for U. S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB as he walked in a park near the Lenin Hills.


The incident sparked one of the last bitter episodes of the Cold War.


Accused of being a CIA spy, Daniloff was incarcerated and interrogated in Moscow's Lefortovo prison for two weeks as the American and Soviet governments bickered their way to a diplomatic swap. The two countries eventually traded Daniloff for Gennady Zakharov, a Soviet delegate to the United Nations, arrested in New York on charges of espionage on Aug. 23, 1986.


Foreign correspondents who worked in Moscow in the grim early days of perestroika lived in the long shadow of KGB bugs, cameras, and constant surveillance. Daniloff, who speaks fluent Russian and is of emigre origins, suddenly became a likely target after the arrest of Zakharov forced the KGB to search for a pawn to trade with its arch-enemy.


There was never any evidence to link Daniloff with the American intelligence service, but this did not unduly-disturb his Soviet captors.


As Daniloff explains in his book, referring back to a phrase used by Stalin's prosecutors during the fabricated trials of the 1930s: "Give me the man, and I will build you the case".


In an ironic twist of fate, the bookshop in which the launch was held lies across the street from the Lubyanka -- and the building itself is owned by the KGB.


Daniloff first released "Two Lives, One Russia", in English in 1988. It is a vivid account of his grueling time in a Lefortovo cell and parallels his experiences with those of his great-great grandfather, Alexander Frolov, who was imprisoned under the czarist regime for his role in the failed Decembrist plot of 1825.


"The wheel of history has turned in an extraordinary way", Daniloff said.