I remember reading an old article by an American woman (I think she was working for the CIA) who was attached to the Moscow embassy in the 1950s/1960s and used to sneak out of the embassy wearing a shawl so she would look like an ordinary Russian housewife and made observations about the daily life & economic situation of ordinary Russians. I don't think it was published in an ordinary mass-circulation magazine but it was linked to by an economics blog (it wasn't a blogpost though, it was definitely published in some form) and my google-fu is inadequate. Help?