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• Introduction: The Long Road to Violence
• The Periphery before Perestroika
• Moscow Promotes Perestroika
• The Winds of Perestroika Drift South
• 1989: The Center Cannot Hold
• The Harsh Reckoning of February 1990
• The "Calm" before the Storm: March 1990-July 1991
• Slouching towards Independence
• The Short Road to War
• Conclusion: War.

"This book describes the collapse of the Soviet Union from the perspective of Tajikistan, emphasizing the violence and economic degradation endemic in the final years of the USSR (1985-1991)"-- Provided by publisher.

• List of tables
• Introduction
• Topics in the 1980s: from Soviet hegemonism to Gorbachev's new thinking
• The 1990s changing views on Gorbachev's foreign policy and the use of Lenin after Tiananmen
• The 1980s Chinese perceptions of Lenin's Socialism and Gorbachev's Glasnost
• The misuse of Gorbachev after Tiananmen and the 1990s debate about the two Soviet leaders
• Chinese perceptions of the nationality politics of Lenin and Gorbachev
• The post-1991 learning
• Chinese Sovietology and post-Mao state policies
• Bibliography.

"The breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 had significant repercussions on Chinese politics, foreign policy, and other aspects. In this book, Jie Li examines the evolution of Chinese intellectual perceptions of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s, before and after the collapse. Relying on a larger body of updated Chinese sources, Li re-evaluates many key issues in post-Mao Chinese Sovietology, arguing that the Chinese views on the Soviet Union had been influenced and shaped by the ups-and-downs of Sino-Soviet (and later Sino-Russian) relations, China's domestic political climate, and the political developments in Moscow. By researching the country of the Soviet Union, Chinese Soviet-watchers did not focus on the USSR alone, but mostly attempted to confirm and legitimize the Chinese state policies of reform and open door in both decades. By examining the Soviet past, Chinese scholars not only demonstrated concern for the survival of the CCP regime, but also attempted to envision the future direction and position of China in the post-communist world"-- Provided by publisher.

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union-showing how Gorbachev's misguided reforms led to its demise "A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart."-Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times "[A] masterly analysis."-Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal In 1945 the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four-million strong, five-thousand nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the twentieth century. Thirty years on, Vladislav Zubok offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Instead, Zubok reveals how Gorbachev's misguided reforms, intended to modernize and democratize the Soviet Union, deprived the government of resources and empowered separatism. Collapse sheds new light on Russian democratic populism, the Baltic struggle for independence, the crisis of Soviet finances-and the fragility of authoritarian state power.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This film finds acclaimed director Vitaly Mansky at home with a man who helped to shape the 20th-century: Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviet leader was acclaimed as the architect of Glasnost and Perestroika, policies that gave the citizens of the Soviet Union a chance to be free. He even tore down the Berlin Wall. But at the same time, under his rule, the Chernobyl nuclear facility exploded and its destruction was concealed. Citizens demanding independence in the Baltic states died. Soldiers wielding shovels brutally suppressed protesters in Tbilisi. Soviet tanks killed peaceful demonstrators in Baku. Under Gorbachev, the Soviet empire collapsed. He is now condemned by his own people. This intimate portrait finds Gorbachev living alone in an empty house outside Moscow, still carrying the burdens of his past

• Introduction: A matter of life and death
• The Russian White House under siege
• A new Russia is born from the flames
• Cooperation with the post-socialist states
• Putting out fires in conflict zones
• Reinventing relationships with the West and East
• Shared fate : foreign policy and domestic politics
• Balkan complications
• The battle for the Kremlin
• Opportunities and anxieties
• The end of the beginning
• Epilogue: Can Russian democracy rise again?

Andrei Kozyrev was foreign minister of Russia under President Boris Yeltsin from August 1991 to January 1996. During the August 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, he was present when tanks moved in to seize the Russian White House, where Boris Yeltsin famously stood on a tank to address the crowd assembled. He then departed to Paris to muster international support and, if needed, to form a Russian government-in-exile. He participated in the negotiations at Brezhnev's former hunting lodge in Belazheva, Belarus where the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agreed to secede from the Soviet Union and form a Commonwealth of Independent States. Kozyrev's pro-Western orientation made him an increasingly unpopular figure in Russia as Russia's spiraling economy and the emergence of ultra-wealthy oligarchs soured ordinary Russians on Western ideas of democracy and market capitalism. The Firebird takes the reader into the corridors of power to provide a startling eyewitness account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the struggle to create a democratic Russia in its place, and how the promise of a better future led to the tragic outcome that changed our world forever.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: A matter of life and death
• The Russian White House under siege
• A new Russia is born from the flames
• Cooperation with the post-socialist states
• Putting out fires in conflict zones
• Reinventing relationships with the West and East
• Shared fate : foreign policy and domestic politics
• Balkan complications
• The battle for the Kremlin
• Opportunities and anxieties
• The end of the beginning
• Epilogue: Can Russian democracy rise again?

Andrei Kozyrev was foreign minister of Russia under President Boris Yeltsin from August 1991 to January 1996. During the August 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, he was present when tanks moved in to seize the Russian White House, where Boris Yeltsin famously stood on a tank to address the crowd assembled. He then departed to Paris to muster international support and, if needed, to form a Russian government-in-exile. He participated in the negotiations at Brezhnev's former hunting lodge in Belazheva, Belarus where the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agreed to secede from the Soviet Union and form a Commonwealth of Independent States. Kozyrev's pro-Western orientation made him an increasingly unpopular figure in Russia as Russia's spiraling economy and the emergence of ultra-wealthy oligarchs soured ordinary Russians on Western ideas of democracy and market capitalism. The Firebird takes the reader into the corridors of power to provide a startling eyewitness account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the struggle to create a democratic Russia in its place, and how the promise of a better future led to the tragic outcome that changed our world forever.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Through interviews with leading participants on both sides, prominent Russian journalist Galina Sapozhnikova captures the political and human dimensions of betrayal and disillusionment that led to the collapse of the USSR, the 20th century's greatest experiment in social engineering, and what happened to the men and women who struggled to destroy or save it. Termed "color" revolutions by the worldwide media as most were designated colors, these various; movements developed in several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states during the early 2000s. In reality, they were US intelligence operations which covertly instigated, supported and infiltrated protest movements with a view to triggering regime change under the banner of a pro-democracy uprising . The objective was to manipulate elections, initiate violence, foment social unrest and use the resulting protest movement to topple an existing government in order goal to install a compliant pro-US government. How has all that worked out in Lithuania? What happened to the pro-democracy forces and to those they defeated in the aftermath? What was the role of Gorbachev? Was Eugene Sharp implicated behind the scenes in this grand show of historic transformation? What happened to the Lithuanians, who didn't agree to the USSR's dissolution? How did the political shape-shifters act; the former Komsomol and Communist Party executives, who took high posts in the new "democratic" governments? This book not only exposes the tactical stages in the process of regime change, but also sheds light on how these events play out, post regime-change, when the dust in the eyes of many has cleared. It is key to grasping the template that today underlies similar events in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and likely elsewhere, going forward. To date, this book has been published in Lithuanian, Russian and Italian.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: "Gorbachev is hard to understand"
• Childhood, boyhood, and youth: 1931-1949
• Moscow State University: 1950-1955
• Climbing the ladder: 1955-1969
• Regional party boss: 1969-1978
• Return to Moscow: 1978-1985
• What is to be done? 1985-1986
• Onto the world stage: March 1985-December 1986
• Two scorpions in a bottle: 1987
• Who's afraid of Nina Andreyeva? 1988
• Before the storm: 1987-1988
• Summits galore: 1987-1988
• 1989: triumph and trouble at home
• 1989: triumph and trouble abroad
• Coming apart? 1990
• Coming together? 1990
• To the coup: January-August 1991
• The coup: August 1991
• Final days: August-December 1991
• Out of power: 1991-2000
• Conclusion: understanding Gorbachev.

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism, and had made enemies of radicals on the right and left. By 1990 he, more than anyone else, had ended the Cold War, and in 1991, after barely escaping from a coup attempt, he unintentionally presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union he had tried to save. In the first comprehensive biography of the final Soviet leader, William Taubman shows how a peasant boy became the Soviet system's gravedigger, how he clambered to the top of a system designed to keep people like him down, how he found common ground with America's arch-conservative president Ronald Reagan, and how he permitted the USSR and its East European empire to break apart without using force to preserve them. Throughout, Taubman portrays the many sides of Gorbachev's unique character that, by Gorbachev's own admission, make him "difficult to understand." Was he in fact a truly great leader, or was he brought low in the end by his own shortcomings, as well as by the unyielding forces he faced? Drawing on interviews with Gorbachev himself, transcripts and documents from the Russian archives, and interviews with Kremlin aides and adversaries, as well as foreign leaders, Taubman's intensely personal portrait extends to Gorbachev's remarkable marriage to a woman he deeply loved, and to the family that they raised together. Nuanced and poignant, yet unsparing and honest, this sweeping account has all the amplitude of a great Russian novel.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Diplomacy and Democratic Reforms
• 2. The August 1991 Coup : The Breaking Point
• 3. Anatomy of a Lost Decade, 1992-2000
• 4. How the System Really Works
• 5. Inside the Secret Police State
• 6. Strangling Democracy
• 7. The New Russian Imperialism
• Conclusion
• Cast of Characters.

"An internal account of the political activities taking place inside the Kremlin from the fall of the USSR under the administration of Gorbachev to the future of Russia under Putin"--Provided by publisher.
"Elite-level Soviet politics, privileged access to state secrets, knowledge about machinations inside the Kremlin--such is the environment in which Andrei A. Kovalev lived and worked. In this memoir of his time as a successful diplomat serving in various key capacities and as a member of Mikhail Gorbachev's staff, Kovalev reveals hard truths about his country as only a perceptive witness can do. In Russia's Dead End Kovalev shares his intimate knowledge of political activities behind the scenes at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kremlin before and after the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, including the Russia of Vladimir Putin. Kovalev analyzes Soviet efforts to comply with international human-rights obligations, the machinations of the KGB, and the link between corrupt oligarchs and state officials. He documents the fall of the USSR, the post-Soviet explosion of state terrorism and propaganda, and offers a nuanced historical explanation of the roots of Russia's contemporary crisis under Vladimir Putin. This insider's memoir provides a penetrating analysis of late-Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics that is pungent, pointed, witty, and accessible. It assesses the current dangerous status of Russian politics and society while illuminating the path to a more just and democratic future"--Provided by publisher.

• 1. Diplomacy and Democratic Reforms
• 2. The August 1991 Coup : The Breaking Point
• 3. Anatomy of a Lost Decade, 1992-2000
• 4. How the System Really Works
• 5. Inside the Secret Police State
• 6. Strangling Democracy
• 7. The New Russian Imperialism.

Elite-level Soviet politics, privileged access to state secrets, knowledge about machinations inside the Kremlin-such is the environment in which Andrei A. Kovalev lived and worked. In this memoir of his time as a successful diplomat serving in various key capacities and as a member of Mikhail Gorbachev's staff, Kovalev reveals hard truths about his country as only a perceptive witness can do. In Russia's Dead End Kovalev shares his intimate knowledge of political activities behind the scenes at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kremlin before and after the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, including the Russia of Vladimir Putin. Kovalev analyzes Soviet efforts to comply with international human-rights obligations, the machinations of the KGB, and the link between corrupt oligarchs and state officials. He documents the fall of the USSR, the post-Soviet explosion of state terrorism and propaganda, and offers a nuanced historical explanation of the roots of Russia's contemporary crisis under Vladimir Putin. This insider's memoir provides a penetrating analysis of late-Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics that is pungent, pointed, witty, and accessible. It assesses the current dangerous status of Russian politics and society while illuminating the path to a more just and democratic future.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The Great Patriotic War, 1939-1945
• Post-war Stalinism, 1945-1953
• The thaw, 1953-1964
• Stability or stagnation, 1964-1985
• Restructuring and openness, 1985-1991
• The crocodile smiles : Soviet satirical cartoons and social reform
• The Yeltsin era in Russia, 1991-2000
• Vladimir Putin and the resurgence of Russia, 2000-2015.

"Utilizing a wide range of primary sources including both texts and images, this book tells the story of Soviet and Russian history from multiple viewpoints, enabling students to develop interpretive skills. Each document is carefully chosen and contextualized to promote class discussion on a variety of critical topics"--Provided by publisher.

• Youth
• War
• Khrushchev's speech
• Columbia University
• Trouble
• Canada
• Back home
• The December 1985 Memorandum
• Relations with Gorbachev
• Glasnost'
• Need of a fundamental break
• Role in foreign policy
• The 1939 Secret Protocol
• Attitude toward the United States
• Advocating presidency
• Accusations of treason
• Bolshevik crimes
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• Private life
• The August 1991 Coup
• Yakovlev's final thoughts about Russia and Russians
• Death.

A significant political figure in twentieth-century Russia, Alexander Yakovlev was the intellectual force behind the processes of perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost (openness) that liberated the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe from Communist rule between 1989 and 1991. Yet, until now, not a single full-scale biography has been devoted to him. In his study of the unsung hero, Richard Pipes seeks to rectify this lacuna and give Yakovlev his historical due. Yakovlev's life provides a unique instance of a leading figure in the Soviet government who evolved from a dedicated Communist and Stalinist into an equally ardent foe of everything the Leninist-Stalinist regime stood for. He quit government service in 1991 and lived until 2005, becoming toward the end of his life a classical western liberal who shared none of the traditional Russian values. Pipes's illuminating study consists of two parts: a biography of Yakovlev and Pipes's translation of two important articles by Yakovlev. It will appeal to specialists and students of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, government officials involved with foreign policy, and general readers interested in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• * To my readers * Preface: Perestroika and the future * Trying to bury me * I After Perestroika * II Whither Russia? * III Today's uneasy world * Conclusion * Reflections of an optimist * Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Originally published in Russian as Posle Kremlya, Moskva: Ves Mir, 2014.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has ever been in the past 25 years. Putin's motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail Gorbachev. In this new work, Russia's elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience to reveal the development of Putin's regime and the intentions behind it. He argues that in order to further his own personal power, Putin has corrupted the achievements of perestroika and created a system which offers no future for Russia. Faced with this, Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics and new fostering of pluralism and social democracy. Gorbachev's insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region, including the Ukraine conflict, as well as the global challenges of poverty and climate change. Above all else, he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War. This book represents the summation of Gorbachev's thinking on the course that Russia has taken since 1991 and stands as a testament to one of the greatest and most influential statesmen of the 20th century.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Einführung / Hanns Jürgen Küsters
• Der Zerfall des Sowjetimperiums
• Von der Stagnation zum Verfall : Kennzeichen der sowjetischen Wirtschaft der 1980er Jahre / Stefan Karner
• Gorbachev, ideology, and the end of the cold war / Stephen E. Hanson
• The Warsaw Pact Alliance, 1985-1991 : reform, adaptation, and collapse / Mark Kramer
• Der Warschauer Pakt im Zeichen von Gorbatschows Perestroika 1985-1991 / Gerhard Wettig
• Der Weg zur Friedlichen Revolution
• The Summit talks between Gorbachev and Reagan, Bush / Jack Matlock, Jr.
• Die Deutschen und Gorbatschow 1987 bis 1989 : West- und ostdeutsche Perzeptionen zwischen Kontinuität und Wandel / Hermann Wentker
• Die sowjetische Perzeption der "Wende" in Ungarn und Polen / Peter Ruggenthaler
• Sowjetische Deutschlandpolitik der Ära Gorbatschow / Manfred Wilke
• Herbstrevolution und Nachrichtendienst : das stille Ableben der Geheimpolizeien in der DDR im Laufe des Jahres 1989 / Thomas Wegener Friis und Helmut Müller-Enbergs
• Vom Mauerfall zur Wiedervereinigung
• Helmut Kohl, der Mauerfall und die Wiedervereinigung 1989-90 / Hanns Jürgen Küsters
• Britain, Margaret Thatcher, and the end of the cold war / Anne Deighton
• How Kohl and Gorbachev wrapped up German Unification while Bush ensured NATO's perpetuation beyond the cold war / Kristina Spohr
• Autoren Verzeichnis.

• Youth
• War
• Khrushchev's speech
• Columbia University
• Trouble
• Canada
• Back home
• The December 1985 Memorandum
• Relations with Gorbachev
• Glasnost'
• Need of a fundamental break
• Role in foreign policy
• The 1939 Secret Protocol
• Attitude toward the United States
• Advocating presidency
• Accusations of treason
• Bolshevik crimes
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• Private life
• The August 1991 Coup
• Yakovlev's final thoughts about Russia and Russians
• Death.

A significant political figure in twentieth-century Russia, Alexander Yakovlev was the intellectual force behind the processes of perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost (openness) that liberated the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe from Communist rule between 1989 and 1991. Yet, until now, not a single full-scale biography has been devoted to him. In his study of the unsung hero, Richard Pipes seeks to rectify this lacuna and give Yakovlev his historical due. Yakovlev's life provides a unique instance of a leading figure in the Soviet government who evolved from a dedicated Communist and Stalinist into an equally ardent foe of everything the Leninist-Stalinist regime stood for. He quit government service in 1991 and lived until 2005, becoming toward the end of his life a classical western liberal who shared none of the traditional Russian values. Pipes's illuminating study consists of two parts: a biography of Yakovlev and Pipes's translation of two important articles by Yakovlev. It will appeal to specialists and students of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, government officials involved with foreign policy, and general readers interested in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"A highly original narrative history by The Economist's Moscow bureau chief that does for modern Russia what Evan Osnos did for China in The Age of Ambition. The end of communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those heady days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia is a breathtakingly ambitious book that reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation. With the deep insight only possible of a native son, Arkady Ostrovsky introduces us to the propagandists, oligarchs and fixers who have set Russia's course since the collapse of the Soviet Union, inventing a new and more ominous identity for a country where ideas are all too often wielded like a cudgel"--Provided by publisher.

• Introduction
• 1. Russians and Serbs in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia: grounds for comparison and alternative explanations
• 2. States, nations, and nationalism: a Weberian view
• 3. Empire, state, and nation in Russia and Serbia
• 4. Communism and nationalism: Russians and Serbs in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia
• 5. The nation as a community of shared memories and common political destiny: Russians and Serbs in literary narratives
• Conclusion
• Postscript.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in different modes of dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. Why did Russia's elites agree to the dissolution of the Soviet Union along the borders of Soviet republics, leaving twenty-five million Russians outside of Russia? Conversely, why did Serbia's elite succeed in mobilizing Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia for the nationalist cause? Combining a Weberian emphasis on interpretive understanding and counterfactual analysis with theories of nationalism, Veljko Vujacic highlights the role of historical legacies, national myths, collective memories, and literary narratives in shaping diametrically opposed attitudes toward the state in Russia and Serbia. The emphasis on the unintended consequences of communist nationality policy highlights how these attitudes interacted with institutional factors, favoring different outcomes in 1991. The book's postscript examines how this explanation holds up in the light of Russia's annexation of Crimea.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The last summit. Meeting in Moscow ; The party crasher ; Chicken Kiev
• The tanks of August. The prisoner of the Crimea ; The Russian rebel ; Freedom's victory
• A countercoup. The resurgence of Russia ; Independent Ukraine ; Saving the empire
• Soviet disunion. Washington's dilemma ; The Russian ark ; The survivor
• Vox populi. Anticipation ; The Ukrainian referendum ; The Slavic trinity
• Farewell to the empire. Out of the woods ; The birth of Eurasia ; Christmas in Moscow.

On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took centre stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades, with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world.As Prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals in The Last Empire , the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. On the contrary, American leaders dreaded the possibility that the Soviet Union, weakened by infighting and economic turmoil, might suddenly crumble, throwing all of Eurasia into chaos. Bush was firmly committed to supporting his ally and personal friend Gorbachev, and remained wary of nationalist or radical leaders such as recently elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Fearing what might happen to the large Soviet nuclear arsenal in the event of the union's collapse, Bush stood by Gorbachev as he resisted the growing independence movements in Ukraine, mouldova, and the Caucasus. Plokhy's detailed, authoritative account shows that it was only after the movement for independence of the republics had gained undeniable momentum on the eve of the Ukrainian vote for independence that fall that Bush finally abandoned Gorbachev to his fate.Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union's final months and argues that the key to the Soviet collapse was the inability of the two largest Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine, to agree on the continuing existence of a unified state. By attributing the Soviet collapse to the impact of American actions, US policy makers overrated their own capacities in toppling and rebuilding foreign regimes. Not only was the key American role in the demise of the Soviet Union a myth, but this misplaced belief has guided, and haunted, American foreign policy ever since.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took centre stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades, with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world.As Prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals in The Last Empire , the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. On the contrary, American leaders dreaded the possibility that the Soviet Union, weakened by infighting and economic turmoil, might suddenly crumble, throwing all of Eurasia into chaos. Bush was firmly committed to supporting his ally and personal friend Gorbachev, and remained wary of nationalist or radical leaders such as recently elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Fearing what might happen to the large Soviet nuclear arsenal in the event of the union's collapse, Bush stood by Gorbachev as he resisted the growing independence movements in Ukraine, mouldova, and the Caucasus. Plokhy's detailed, authoritative account shows that it was only after the movement for independence of the republics had gained undeniable momentum on the eve of the Ukrainian vote for independence that fall that Bush finally abandoned Gorbachev to his fate.Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union's final months and argues that the key to the Soviet collapse was the inability of the two largest Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine, to agree on the continuing existence of a unified state. By attributing the Soviet collapse to the impact of American actions, US policy makers overrated their own capacities in toppling and rebuilding foreign regimes. Not only was the key American role in the demise of the Soviet Union a myth, but this misplaced belief has guided, and haunted, American foreign policy ever since.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction
• pt. I. Breznev's Containment Policy. 2. The Soviet Union's China Strategy, 1969-79. 3. The Sino-Soviet Conflict in Perspective
• pt. II. The Road to Beijing. 4. Leadership Change in the USSR and Sino-Soviet Relations, 1980-85. 5. Pressures for Continuity and Change in Soviet China Policy in the Early 1980s. 6. From Rapprochement to Normalization. 7. The Gorbachev Revolution and China Policy
• pt. III. Toward Sino-Russian Partnership. 8. Sino-Russian Relations in the Yeltsin Era. 9. Moscow and the Border Regions Debate Russia's China Policy.

Examining Russian-Chinese relations from Moscow's perspective, this important study illuminates the forces driving Moscow's China policy from 1969 to the 1990s, and concludes that the future of the partnership depends on forces of change.

• 1. Introduction
• pt. I. Breznev's Containment Policy. 2. The Soviet Union's China Strategy, 1969-79. 3. The Sino-Soviet Conflict in Perspective
• pt. II. The Road to Beijing. 4. Leadership Change in the USSR and Sino-Soviet Relations, 1980-85. 5. Pressures for Continuity and Change in Soviet China Policy in the Early 1980s. 6. From Rapprochement to Normalization. 7. The Gorbachev Revolution and China Policy
• pt. III. Toward Sino-Russian Partnership. 8. Sino-Russian Relations in the Yeltsin Era. 9. Moscow and the Border Regions Debate Russia's China Policy.

Examining Russian-Chinese relations from Moscow's perspective, this important study illuminates the forces driving Moscow's China policy from 1969 to the 1990s, and concludes that the future of the partnership depends on forces of change.

• CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
• PART I. MODERNITY AND MYTH
• CHAPTER 1. Modernity and Its Projects
• Modernity, Colonization, and Globalization
• Multiple Modernities and Cultural Hybridization
• Modernization through Internal Colonization
• The Myth of Enlightenment
• CHAPTER 2. Deconstructing Mythologies
• Roland Barthes's Mythologies
• The Schizophrenia of the Network
• The Idea of Framing
• Frame Analysis of Modernization Myths
• PART II. SOVIET MODERNITY
• CHAPTER 3. The Rise and Fall of an Alternative Project
• Great Transformation
• Stagnation and Gorbachev Reforms
• CHAPTER 4. The Discourses of Perestroika
• Democracy
• Market
• The United States
• PART III. THE VERNACULAR VS. THE ELITE
• On Methodology
• CHAPTER 5. Mythologizing Democracy
• Intellectual Mythology: The Highway of Civilization
• Vernacular Mythology: Power to the People!
• CHAPTER 6. Mythologizing the Market
• Intellectual Mythology: The invisible Hand
• Vernacular Mythology: Enriching Working People
• CHAPTER 7. Mythologizing the United States: The Horn of Plenty PART IV. THE SCHIZOPHRENIA OF PERESTROIKA
• CHAPTER 8. The Twilight Zone
• The Spirit of Hopelessness
• World Risk Society
• The Logic of Both / And
• CHAPTER 9. Schizophrenia as a Communicative Disorder
• Double Bind
• Network Schizophrenia and the Public Sphere
• CHAPTER 10. Personal Reflections
• CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Primary Sources: Media Articles
• Secondary Sources
• APPENDIX A . Research Design
• Data Collecting
• Coding
• APPENDIX B . Statistical Results.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The purpose of The Mythologies of Capitalism and the End of the Soviet Project is to show that in order to understand popular disillusionment with democratization, liberalization, and other transformations associated with the attempts of non-Western societies to appropriate the ideas of Western modernity, one must consider how these ideas are mythologized in the course of such appropriations. Olga Baysha argues that the seeds of popular post-revolutionary frustration should be sought in pre-revolutionary discourses on democracy, liberalism, and other concepts of Western modernity that are produced outside local contexts and introduced through the channels of global communication and the interpretations of politicians, activists, and experts. Analyzing the opinions of working people and intellectuals published in two Ukrainian newspapers of perestroika times, the author shows how the concepts of democracy, the market, and the West acquired schizophrenic mythical significations. The study is situated within the context of Ulrich Beck's theory of world risk society and Gregory Bateson's theory of schizophrenia as communicative disorder. The author argues that schizophrenic mythologies constructed through globalized networks can lead to disorientation, frustration, and the sense of uncertainty and insecurity on the part of mass publics.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction / Dorothy S. McClellan
• State of the Soviet Union : view from the ivory tower / Dorothy S. McClellan and James E. McClellan, Jr
• Moral and spiritual changes / Howard L. Parsons
• Coaching Soviet baseball : excerpts from a sociologist's journal / William J. Byrne III
• Perestroika and ideology / John J. Neumaier
• Russia between the Union and the Commonwealth : new Carpetbaggers and old dreams / Carla Lipsig-Mumme
• Worker self-management in Soviet theory and practice / Aaron Bindman
• The crisis of Soviet legitimacy / Herman Schwendinger and Julia Schwendinger
• Moscow memoir : on the status of women / Freda Casner
• Perestroika and the internationalization of Russian higher education : the summer of 1990 / Donald A. Biggs
• Perestroika in philosophy : report from Moscow State University / Dorothy S. McClellan and James E. McClellan, Jr
• Why, when and how we lost Russia / James E. McClellan, Jr
• The universality of liberal capitalism and the possibility of renewed socialism : reflections on the Soviet coup of August 1991 / James Lawler.

"This book provides an intimate look at how Americans resident in the Soviet Union in its final days described its fall. Their accounts range from concrete portrayals of individuals to theoretical discussions of ideology, economy, gender equality, capitalism and socialism, producing a multifaceted portrait of this extraordinary moment in world history"-- Provided by publisher.

• Introduction / Dorothy S. McClellan
• State of the Soviet Union : view from the ivory tower / Dorothy S. McClellan and James E. McClellan, Jr
• Moral and spiritual changes / Howard L. Parsons
• Coaching Soviet baseball : excerpts from a sociologist's journal / William J. Byrne III
• Perestroika and ideology / John J. Neumaier
• Russia between the Union and the Commonwealth : new Carpetbaggers and old dreams / Carla Lipsig-Mumme
• Worker self-management in Soviet theory and practice / Aaron Bindman
• The crisis of Soviet legitimacy / Herman Schwendinger and Julia Schwendinger
• Moscow memoir : on the status of women / Freda Casner
• Perestroika and the internationalization of Russian higher education : the summer of 1990 / Donald A. Biggs
• Perestroika in philosophy : report from Moscow State University / Dorothy S. McClellan and James E. McClellan, Jr
• Why, when and how we lost Russia / James E. McClellan, Jr
• The universality of liberal capitalism and the possibility of renewed socialism : reflections on the Soviet coup of August 1991 / James Lawler.

More than 20 years have passed since the fall of the Soviet empire. This book provides an intimate look at how Americans resident in the Soviet Union in its final days described this unprecedented moment in history. North American scholars from the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, psychology, women's studies, criminal justice, labor relations, religion and education present their insights into the dramatic events that marked the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to the Commonwealth of Independent States. As glasnost and perestroika developed, many Russians grew critical of t.

• List of illustrations. List of Contributors. Foreword by Bridget Kendall. Introduction by Irina Prokhorova. LATE
• 1989: A TIMELINE: 'If Lenin Were Alive Today, He Would Have Known What to Do' - Aleksey Yurchak. JANUARY: My Diary for January 1990 - Mark Kharitonov. FEBRUARY: The Year of Utopias Realised: Schools, Teachers and Educational Reformers in 1990 - Tamara Eydelman. MARCH: The Irrational in Society: Diagnoses of 1990 - Pavel Romanov and Yelena Yarskaya-Smirnova. APRIL: The Shock of Irrevocability - Hasan Guseynov. MAY: Ends and Means: Initial Ideas, Institutions That Win - Vitaliy Yelizarov. JUNE: The Beginning of the End: Notes of an Eyewitness, Edited by an Historian, Being the Same Person - Marietta Chudakova. JULY: Ideological Construction of a Party Spectrum: The False Start of 1990 - Vadim Goncharov. Free Flight: The Rebirth of Soviet Aeronautics - Svetlana Koroleva. Trade Unions in
• 1990: An Involved Observer's View - Sergey Khramov. AUGUST: The Funeral of Food, or The Soviet Shopping Basket in 1990 - Sergey Karnaukhov. SEPTEMBER: The Russian Orthodox Church in 1990 - Nikolai Mitrokhin. OCTOBER: An Interview with Vladimir Pozner. Frozen Experiences, or Local Television Reporting in 1990 - Pavel Pavlov. NOVEMBER: The Miners in 1989
• -1990: A Venture into National Politics - Sergey Turkin. DECEMBER: History as Economics, or A Journey from 1921 to 1906 via 1990 - Olesya Kirchik. Afterword: The Challenge of Recent History - Irina Prokhorova. Appendix: Illustration Source Notes. Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Although 1989 and 1991 witnessed more spectacular events, 1990 was a year of embryonic change in Russia: Article 6 of the constitution was abolished, and with it the Party's monopoly on political power. This fascinating collection of documentary evidence crystalises the aspirations of the Russian people in the days before Communism finally fell. It charts - among many other social developments - the appearance of new political parties and independent trade unions, the rapid evolution of mass media, the emergence of a new class of entrepreneurs, a new openness about sex and pornography and a sudden craze for hot-air ballooning, banned under the Communist regime. 1990 is a reminder of the confusion and aspirations of the year before Communism finally collapsed in Russia, and a tantalising glimpse of the paths that may have been taken if Yeltsin's coup had not forced the issue in 1991.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Twenty-five years after Gorbachev came to power and two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the questions that were behind the reform efforts at the start of Perestroika are still relevant: how to modernise the economy, and how to recreate a basis for political legitimacy? The wave of 'Colour Revolutions' that precipitated regime change in Eastern Europe, starting in Serbia, and later in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, were carried out in the name of democratic legitimacy, and in order to fight corruption. The current debate in Moscow under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev revolves around the same idea: what is the way forward for Russia's modernisation, economically and politically? This volume brings together six experts on East Europe and the former Soviet Union to compare and evaluate the evolution of ideas behind Gorbachev's reforms, Yeltsin's transition, and the more recent wave of the Colour Revolutions. It does not propose a coherent regard to these historic events, but rather dispersed discussion from various perspectives tracing the contradictory development of ideas of reform, the transformation of the notion of revolution, on the role of civil society, and individual chapters from the four cases of Colour Revolutions. Contributors: Catherine Samary, Jean-Arnault Derens, Ghia Nodia, Dominique Arel, Anara Tabyshalieva.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction
• 1. The Conference as an institution
• 2. The Conference as a policy choice: the CPSU Conference, 1905-1941
• 3. The rhetoric of reform or a consolidation of power? Gorbachev's defeat of left and right at the Nineteenth CPSU Conference, June 1988
• 4. Keeping the 'Outer Empire' in step with the CPSU: Gorbachev's policy of fraternal party alignment via the NPC 1987-8
• 5. Purging party factions: the HSWP National Conference, May 1988
• 6. Consolidating federal party unity at the LCY Conference, May 1988
• 7. Too little, too late: The PUWP Conference, 4-5 May 1989 Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book looks at the liberalisation process in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) during the period 1987-1989, focusing on Gorbachev's initiative to encourage perestroika in all the fraternal regimes of CEE outside the Soviet Union. Archival materials, interviews and textual analysis identify a joint initiative 1987-1989 among these fraternal communist parties to perpetuate the one-party system. For this purpose, fraternal parties were expected to follow the example of the CPSU in convening the national party conference, an all-party meeting on a similar scale to the five-yearly congress, and yet mysteriously, one which was barely described in the Party Statutes and rarely convoked. Gorbachev made use of CEE dependence on the Soviet Union for energy supplies to ensure that at least some fraternal parties followed his line. This book will be of interest to those studying the transition process in CEE, democratisation, comparative politics more generally and students of research methods.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part One. Revolutions, Ideas, and the End of the Soviet Union: 1. The "mystery" of the Soviet collapse and the theory of revolutions; For truth and goodness: the credos of glasnost --Part Two. Who Are We?:Inside the "deafened zone"; In search of history; "The innocent, the slandered, the exterminated"; The peasant hecatomb; The unraveling of the legitimizing myths, I: food, housing, medical care, the "golden childhood", and the standard of living; The unraveling of the legitimizing myths, II: progress, the "state of workers and peasants", equality, "freedom from exploitation", Novocherkassk; The unraveling of the legitimizing myths, III: the Great Patriotic War; The "immoral" economy; The "disintegration of souls": homo sovieticus
• Part Three.Who is to blame?: The house that Stalin built: the master state and its political economy; De-individualization, the "original sin", and the nationalization of conscience
• Part Four. What Is to be Done?: Stalin, memory, repentance, atonement; The "spirit of freedom" and the power of nyet; The freedom canon: Mandelstam, Dombrovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Platonov, Grossman; In man's image, I: "privatizing" the state and economy; In man's image, II: the empire, the "garrison state", and the world
• Epilogue.

Leon Aron considers the "mystery of the Soviet collapse" and finds answers in the intellectual and moral self-scrutiny of glasnost that brought about a profound shift in values. Reviewing the entire output of the key glasnost outlets in 1987-1991, he elucidates and documents key themes in this national soul-searching and the "ultimate" questions that sparked moral awakening of a great nation: "Who are we? How do we live honorably? What is a dignified relationship between man and state? How do we atone for the moral breakdown of Stalinism?" Contributing both to the theory of revolutions and history of ideas, Aron presents a thorough and original narrative about new ideas' dissemination through the various media of the former Soviet Union. Aron shows how, reaching every corner of the nation, these ideas destroyed the moral foundation of the Soviet state, de-legitimized it and made its collapse inevitable.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• ""Cover""; ""CONTENTS""; ""ACKNOWLEDGMENTS""; ""INTRODUCTION""; ""PART ONE: REVOLUTIONS, IDEAS, AND THE END OF THE SOVIET UNION""; ""1 The “Mysteryâ€? of the Soviet Collapse and the Theory of Revolutions""; ""2 For Truth and Goodness: The Credos of Glasnost""; ""PART TWO: ĐšTO Mб? WHO ARE WE?""; ""3 Inside the “Deafened Zoneâ€?""; ""4 In Search of History""; ""5 “The Innocent, the Slandered, the Exterminatedâ€?""; ""6 The Peasant Hecatomb""; ""7 The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, I: Food, Housing, Medical Care, the “Golden Childhood, â€? and the Standard of Living""

• ""8 The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, II: Progress, the “State of Workers and Peasants, â€? Equality, “Freedom from Exploitation, â€? Novocherkassk""""9 The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, III: The Great Patriotic War""; ""10 The “Immoralâ€? Economy""; ""11 The “Disintegration of Soulsâ€?: Homo Sovieticus""; ""PART THREE: ĐšTO BĐ?HOBAT? WHO IS TO BLAME?""; ""12 The House That Stalin Built: The Master State and Its Political Economy""; ""13 “De-individualization, â€? the “Original Sin, â€? and the Nationalization of Conscience""

• ""PART FOUR: ĐTO Đ?EĐ?ATĐƠ? WHAT IS TO BE DONE?""""14 Stalin, Memory, Repentance, Atonement""; ""15 The “Spirit of Freedomâ€? and the Power of Nyet""; ""16 The Freedom Canon: Mandelstam, Dombrovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Platonov, Grossman""; ""17 In Manâ€?s Image, I: “Privatizingâ€? the State and Economy""; ""18 In Manâ€?s Image, II: The Empire, the “Garrison State, â€? and the World""; ""Epilogue""; ""GLASNOSTâ€?S SIGNPOSTS: THE THEMES AND THE TEXTS""; ""GLASNOSTâ€?S TROUBADOURS""; ""NOTES""; ""BIBLIOGRAPHY""; ""INDEX""; ""A""; ""B""; ""C""; ""D""; ""E""; ""F""; ""G""; ""H""; ""I""; ""J""

• ""K""""l""; ""m""; ""n""; ""o""; ""p""; ""r""; ""s""; ""t""; ""u""; ""v""; ""w""; ""y""; ""z""

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One: Revolutions, Ideas, and the End of the Soviet Union
• 1. The "Mystery" of the Soviet Collapse and the Theory of Revolutions
• 2. For Truth and Goodness: The Credos of Glasnost
• Part Two: Кto МыWho are We-- 3. Inside the "Deafened Zone"
• 4. In Search of History
• 5. "The Innocent, the Slandered, the Exterminated"
• 6. The Peasant Hecatomb
• 7. The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, I: Food, Housing, Medical Care, the "Golden Childhood, " and the Standard of Living
• 8. The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, II: Progress, the "State of Workers and Peasants, " Equality, "Freedom from Exploitation, " Novocherkassk
• 9. The Unraveling of the Legitimizing Myths, III: The Great Patriotic War
• 10. The "Immoral" Economy
• 11. The "Disintegration of Souls": Homo Sovieticus
• Part Three: Кto ВиhobatWho Is to Blame-- 12. The House That Stalin Built: The Master State and its Political Economy
• 13. "De-individualization, " the "Original Sin, " and the Nationalization of Conscience
• Part Four: Чto ДелатьWhat Is to Be Done-- 14. Stalin, Memory, Repentance, Atonement
• 15. The "Spirit of Freedom" and the Power of Nyet
• 16. The Freedom Canon: Mandelstam, Dombrovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Platonov, Grossman
• 17. In Man's Image, I: "Privatizing" the State and Economy
• 18. In Man's Image, II: The Empire, the "Garrison State, " and the World
• Epilogue
• Glasnost's Signposts: The Themes and the Texts
• Glasnost's Troubadours
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index.

Leon Aron considers the "mystery of the Soviet collapse" and finds answers in the intellectual and moral self-scrutiny of glasnost that brought about a profound shift in values. Reviewing the entire output of the key glasnost outlets in 1987-1991, he elucidates and documents key themes in this national soul-searching and the "ultimate" questions that sparked moral awakening of a great nation: "Who are we? How do we live honorably? What is a dignified relationship between man and state? How do we atone for the moral breakdown of Stalinism?"Contributing both to the theory of revolutions and history of ideas, Aron presents a thorough and original narrative about new ideas' dissemination through the various media of the former Soviet Union. Aron shows how, reaching every corner of the nation, these ideas destroyed the moral foundation of the Soviet state, de-legitimized it and made its collapse inevitable.&#160.

• The reluctant intervention
• The turn toward diplomacy
• Gorbachev confronts Afghanistan
• The national reconciliation campaign
• Engaging with the Americans
• The Army withdraws and the Politburo debates
• Soviet policy adrift.

The conflict in Afghanistan looms large in the collective consciousness of Americans. What has the United States achieved, and how will it withdraw without sacrificing those gains? The Soviet Union confronted these same questions in the 1980s, and Artemy Kalinovsky's history of the USSR's nine-year struggle to extricate itself from Afghanistan and bring its troops home provides a sobering perspective on exit options in the region. What makes Kalinovsky's intense account both timely and important is its focus not on motives for initiating the conflict but on the factors that prevented the Soviet leadership from ending a demoralizing war. Why did the USSR linger for so long, given that key elites recognized the blunder of the mission shortly after the initial deployment? Newly available archival material, supplemented by interviews with major actors, allows Kalinovsky to reconstruct the fierce debates among Soviet diplomats, KGB officials, the Red Army, and top Politburo figures. The fear that withdrawal would diminish the USSR's status as leader of the Third World is palpable in these disagreements, as are the competing interests of Afghan factions and the Soviet Union's superpower rival in the West. This book challenges many widely held views about the actual costs of the conflict to the Soviet leadership, and its findings illuminate the Cold War context of a military engagement that went very wrong, for much too long.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
Why did the USSR linger so long in Afghanistan? What makes this account of the Soviet-Afghan conflict both timely and important is its focus on the factors that prevented the Soviet leadership from ending a demoralizing and costly war and on the long-term consequences for the Soviet Union and the region.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The reluctant intervention
• The turn toward diplomacy
• Gorbachev confronts Afghanistan
• The national reconciliation campaign
• Engaging with the Americans
• The Army withdraws and the Politburo debates
• Soviet policy adrift.

The conflict in Afghanistan looms large in the collective consciousness of Americans. What has the United States achieved, and how will it withdraw without sacrificing those gains? The Soviet Union confronted these same questions in the 1980s, and Artemy Kalinovsky's history of the USSR's nine-year struggle to extricate itself from Afghanistan and bring its troops home provides a sobering perspective on exit options in the region. What makes Kalinovsky's intense account both timely and important is its focus not on motives for initiating the conflict but on the factors that prevented the Soviet leadership from ending a demoralizing war. Why did the USSR linger for so long, given that key elites recognized the blunder of the mission shortly after the initial deployment? Newly available archival material, supplemented by interviews with major actors, allows Kalinovsky to reconstruct the fierce debates among Soviet diplomats, KGB officials, the Red Army, and top Politburo figures. The fear that withdrawal would diminish the USSR's status as leader of the Third World is palpable in these disagreements, as are the competing interests of Afghan factions and the Soviet Union's superpower rival in the West. This book challenges many widely held views about the actual costs of the conflict to the Soviet leadership, and its findings illuminate the Cold War context of a military engagement that went very wrong, for much too long.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface Words of Gorbachev World in Transition - The End of the Cold War Issyk-Kul Forum (Speech 20 October 1986) Murmansk Initiative (Speech 1 October 1987) Freedom of Choice (speech to 43rd U.N. General Assembly Session, 7 December 1988) Europe as a Common Home (Council of Europe 6 July 1989) Grim Legacy of Old (Speech at 28th Communist Party Congress 2 July 1990 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech (10 December 1990) Address to the Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival (Moscow, 19 January 1990) The Nobel Lecture (Speech- 5 June 1991) Final Televised Address as President of the USSR (25 December 1991) Speech at the Opening of the Fourth International Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders (20 April 1993) What Made Me a Crusader (Op-ed- Time Special Issue, November 1997) Nature Will Not Wait (World Watch Magazine, March/April 2001) Weapons of Mass Destruction: Free World The Importance of Chemical Weapons Abolition (Speech- Geneva Forum on the Worldwide Destruction of Chemical Weapons, 26 June 2003) Address for Second Rally for International Disarmament, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (6-8 May 2008) The Nuclear Threat (Op-ed- Wall Street Journal, 31 January 2007) Speech at Overcoming Nuclear Dangers Conference (16 April 2009) Disarmament Lessons from the Chemical Weapons Convention (Op-ed- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 16 June 2009) Two First Steps on Nuclear Weapons (op-ed- NY Times, 25 September 2009) Resetting the Nuclear Disarmament Agenda (Speech at the United Nations in Geneva, 5 October 2009) The Ice Has Broken (Op-ed- NY Times, 22 April 2010) Address for the Nobel Peace Laureates Forum (12-14 November 2010) The Senate's Next Task: Ratifying the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (op-ed- NY Times- 28 December 2010) Green Agenda Climate Challenge The New Path to Peace and Sustainability (Article- El Pais, 30 January 2004) A New Glasnost for Global Sustainability (Article- The Optimist April 2004) Energy Shift, Now (Forum 2004, 2 June 2004) The Third Pillar of Sustainable Development (Preface to Toward a Sustainable World: The Earth Charter in Action, 2005) The Lessons of Chernobyl (Interview- The Optimist April 2006) Interview with the House Magazine (2006) Foreword to Antarctica: The Global Warming (October 2006) Mikhail Gorbachev on World Food Crisis (Op-ed- Rossiskaya Gazeta daily 13 May 2008) Failure in Copenhagen would be 'catastrophic risk': Gorbachev (Interview- Agence France-Presse, 3 December 2009) Address to the Club of Rome (26 October 2009) Tear Down This Wall! And Save the Planet (Op-ed- The Times, 9 November 2009) Playing Russian Roulette with Climate Change (Op-ed- Project Syndicate, 3 December 2009) We Have a Real Emergency (Op-ed- NY Times, 9 December 2009) After Copenhagen: A New Leadership Challenge (Op-ed- GCI website, 22 December 2009) Let's Get Serious About Climate Talks (Op-ed- NY Times, 3 November 2010) Water for Peace A New Glasnost for Our Future: The Right to Water and Dignified Life (Speech- World Urban Forum, 13 September 2004) Our Common Future (Speech- La Plata Basin Dialogues, 12 September 2005) Access to Water is Not a Privilege, it's a Right (Article- The Optimist, 2005) All of Us Should be Ashamed (Op-ed- Financial Times, 21 March 2007) Climate Change and Water Security: Solving the Equation (Op-ed- Project Syndicate, 6 June 2007) Foreword to Water for Peace - Peace for Water (Article- 2008) Tomorrow May be Too Late to Address Water Crisis (Speech- 'Peace with Water' conference, 12 February 2009) The Right to Water (Op-ed- NY Times 16 July 2010) CSA Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev (Autumn 2010) Word on Gorbachev Contributors - Shimon Peres George Bush Sr. Ruud Lubbers F. W. de Klerk Dr. Jan Kulczyk Federico Mayor Zaragoza Mario Soares Maurice Strong Martin Lees Ted Turner Achim Steiner Diane Meyer Simon Dr. Ismail Serageldin Guido Pollice Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp Sir David King Shoo Iwasaki Jean-Michel Cousteau Steven Rockefeller Charles & Diane Gallagher Sergei Kapitsa Alexander Likhotal Pat Mitchell & Scott Seydel Ricardo Lagos Margaret Thatcher.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Mikhail Gorbachev is living proof that the word is mightier than the sword; that ideas, not armies, change the world. Dedicated to ridding humanity of the threat of nuclear annihilation, Gorbachev called for multilateral action to forge a common future at a time when the superpowers were at loggerheads. Two key words, Perestroika and Glasnost, characterised his philosophy - words that came to represent change and freedom in the universal consciousness. Gorbachev's radical thought ignited sweeping reforms in the Soviet Union, inspired liberation movements across Eastern Europe, and thawed decades of Cold War enmity. For Gorbachev, environmental matters have always been inextricably bound up with peace, security and social justice. The transition from head of state of the USSR to president of a non-governmental organisation, Green Cross International, was therefore a natural one. "Mikhail Gorbachev: Prophet for Change" traces the evolution of his vision, in particular the origins and outcomes of his environmental agenda, which belong to the important legacy of the changes Gorbachev initiated in the Soviet Union and the world. Without these critical initiatives, the many advances of today's global environmental movement would not have been possible. This anthology, featuring select speeches and writings, as well as tributes from political contemporaries and partners in the environmental and peace movements, has been compiled by Green Cross International to celebrate Gorbachev's 80th birthday. The tributes from colleagues and friends - ranging from political heavyweights George Bush and Margaret Thatcher to renowned champions of sustainability Maurice Strong and Achim Steiner - reflect the esteem in which Mikhail Gorbachev is held, and the special place he occupies in the history of our times.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The implosion of the Soviet Union was the culmination of a gripping game played out between two men who intensely disliked each other and had different concepts for the future. Mikhail Gorbachev, a sophisticated and urbane reformer, sought to modernize and preserve the USSR; Boris Yeltsin, a coarse and a hard drinking "bulldozer, " wished to destroy the union and create a capitalist Russia. The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt, carried out by hardline communists, shook Gorbachev's authority and was a triumph for Yeltsin. But it took four months of intrigue and double-dealing before the Soviet Union collapsed and the day arrived when Yeltsin could hustle Gorbachev out of the Kremlin, and move in as ruler of Russia. Conor O'Clery has written a unique and truly suspenseful thriller of the day the Soviet Union died. The internal power plays, the shifting alliances, the betrayals, the mysterious three colonels carrying the briefcase with the nuclear codes, and the jockeying to exploit the future are worthy of John Le Carre or Alan Furst. The Cold War's last act was a magnificent dark drama played out in the shadows of the Kremlin.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Alternatives and Fates
• 1. Bukharin's Fate
• 2. The Victims Return: Gulag Survivors Since Stalin
• 3. The Tragedy of Soviet Conservatism
• 4. Was the Soviet System Reformable?
• 5. The Fate of the Soviet Union: Why Did It End?
• 6. Gorbachev's Lost Legacies
• 7. Who Lost the Post-Soviet Peace? About the Notes Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In this wide-ranging and acclaimed book, Stephen F. Cohen challenges conventional wisdom about the course of Soviet and post-Soviet history. Reexamining leaders from Nikolai Bukharin, Stalin's preeminent opponent, and Nikita Khrushchev to Mikhail Gorbachev and his rival Yegor Ligachev, Cohen shows that their defeated policies were viable alternatives and that their tragic personal fates shaped the Soviet Union and Russia today. Cohen's ramifying arguments include that Stalinism was not the predetermined outcome of the Communist Revolution; that the Soviet Union was reformable and its breakup avoidable; and that the opportunity for a real post-Cold War relationship with Russia was squandered in Washington, not in Moscow. This is revisionist history at its best, compelling readers to rethink fateful events of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and the possibilities ahead. In his new epilogue, Cohen expands his analysis of U.S. policy toward post-Soviet Russia, tracing its development in the Clinton and Obama administrations and pointing to its initiation of a "new Cold War" that, he implies, has led to a fateful confrontation over Ukraine.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Since Russian leader Vladimir Putin assumed power in August 1999, speculation about his character, motives, and plans for Russia's future has been rampant in the West. A portrait of Putin has emerged in the West that is one-dimensional, ill informed, and diametrically opposed to the image of Putin the majority of Russians hold. Even after he stepped down as president in May 2008, retaining a significant measure of power as prime minister under his hand-picked successor, President Dmitri Medvedev, Putin remains poorly understood. In this interpretive biography of Putin, Allen C. Lynch seeks to reconcile the two conflicting images and find out just where the truth lies about the man and the statesman. Westerners view Putin as an authoritarian holdover from the Soviet era who has clamped down on domestic opposition, freedom of the press, and other elements of a functioning democracy and who has relentlessly exerted Russian influence abroad, challenging the West and seeking to control its post-Soviet periphery. Most Russians, in contrast, are likely to be grateful to Putin for presiding over an economic recovery and reasserting Russian dignity on the world stage. A complete apprehension of the Russian leader, according to Lynch, requires an understanding of the way in which Putin's personal experiences and critical events in recent Russian history have shaped his outlook. Lynch convincingly demonstrates how a complex interplay of Russia's post-Soviet circumstances and the particular path of Putin's career have informed his choices as leader.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The formative years, 1952-1989
• St. Petersburg years, 1990-96
• Putin in Moscow, 1996-99
• Putin at the helm, 1999-2000
• Putin's domestic politics and policies
• Putin's foreign policy.

Since Russian leader Vladimir Putin assumed power in August 1999, speculation about his character, motives, and plans for Russia's future has been rampant in the West. A portrait of Putin has emerged in the West that is one-dimensional, ill informed, and diametrically opposed to the image of Putin the majority of Russians hold. Even after he stepped down as president in May 2008, retaining a significant measure of power as prime minister under his hand-picked successor, President Dmitri Medvedev, Putin remains poorly understood. In this interpretive biography of Putin, Allen C. Lynch seeks to reconcile the two conflicting images and find out just where the truth lies about the man and the statesman. Westerners view Putin as an authoritarian holdover from the Soviet era who has clamped down on domestic opposition, freedom of the press, and other elements of a functioning democracy and who has relentlessly exerted Russian influence abroad, challenging the West and seeking to control its post-Soviet periphery. Most Russians, in contrast, are likely to be grateful to Putin for presiding over an economic recovery and reasserting Russian dignity on the world stage. A complete apprehension of the Russian leader, according to Lynch, requires an understanding of the way in which Putin's personal experiences and critical events in recent Russian history have shaped his outlook. Lynch convincingly demonstrates how a complex interplay of Russia's post-Soviet circumstances and the particular path of Putin's career have informed his choices as leader.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Religion, Empire and Homo Romanovicus/Pahlavicus
• Chapter 3: Westernisation, Authenticity, Revolution
• Chapter 4: Leninism-Khomeinism: Ideological Dimension
• Chapter 5: Leninism-Khomeinism: Institutionalised Revolution
• Chapter 6: Gorbachev-Khatami: The Human Factor
• Chapter 7: The Geopolitics of Reform
• Chapter 8: Gorbachev-Khatami: Battle for Glasnost
• Chapter 9: Gorbachev: Politics of Change
• Chapter 10: Khatami: Politics of Change
• Chapter 11: Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Why is it important to compare the experiences, successes and difficulties of Mohammad Khatami and Mikhail Gorbachev, two leaders operating in very different political environments and cultures? Both men were products of two of the 20th century's most momentous revolutions and both sought to reform from within the contradictions and problems which these revolutions produced. Zhand Shakibi provides the first comparative analysis of Khatami and Gorbachev based on first-hand interviews and previously unpublished sources, revealing the extent of their common goals and predicaments. The importance of this study lies in its demonstration of how similar political features in completely different political environments can produce common political outcomes. This book is a fascinating resource for political scientists, international relations specialists and historians of 20th century politics.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Religion, Empire and Homo Romanovicus/Pahlavicus
• Chapter 3: Westernisation, Authenticity, Revolution
• Chapter 4: Leninism-Khomeinism: Ideological Dimension
• Chapter 5: Leninism-Khomeinism: Institutionalised Revolution
• Chapter 6: Gorbachev-Khatami: The Human Factor
• Chapter 7: The Geopolitics of Reform
• Chapter 8: Gorbachev-Khatami: Battle for Glasnost
• Chapter 9: Gorbachev: Politics of Change
• Chapter 10: Khatami: Politics of Change
• Chapter 11: Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Why is it important to compare the experiences, successes and difficulties of Mohammad Khatami and Mikhail Gorbachev, two leaders operating in very different political environments and cultures? Both men were products of two of the 20th century's most momentous revolutions and both sought to reform from within the contradictions and problems which these revolutions produced. Zhand Shakibi provides the first comparative analysis of Khatami and Gorbachev based on first-hand interviews and previously unpublished sources, revealing the extent of their common goals and predicaments. The importance of this study lies in its demonstration of how similar political features in completely different political environments can produce common political outcomes. This book is a fascinating resource for political scientists, international relations specialists and historians of 20th century politics.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Termites and Barking Dogs
• Chapter 2: Social Capital and Ideology
• Chapter 3: Two Scientists, Two Paths
• Chapter 4: Foreign Communists
• Chapter 5: Three Freelance Diplomats
• Chapter 6: A Civil Society: Elite Bears and Doves
• Chapter 7: Scientists and Weaponeers
• Chapter 8: In the Hands of Experts
• Chapter 9: Do Peace and Democracy Work?
• Chapter 10: The Soviet Peace Movement at the Time of the Coup
• Chapter 11: The End and the Beginning
• Chapter 12: From Below and Sideways
• Chapter 13: Social Traps-Toward an Explanation of Totalitarianism
• Chapter 14: Quest? What Quest? Conclusion Acknowledgments Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer recounts the political and military changes that have occurred in Russia up to mid-2010. Using hundreds of interviews she conducted with officials, dissidents, and liberal intellectuals, she describes the various groups, forces, and individuals that worked to liberalize the totalitarian Soviet Union and its fellow nations behind the Iron Curtain, and which ultimately brought about the dissolution of those repressive governments. Spencer identifies four political orientations to describe Soviet society: "Sheep, " ordinary citizens who accepted the undemocratic regime they lived in without challenging it; "Dinosaurs, " hard-line Communist officials; "Termites, " including Mikhail Gorbachev and his advisers and government; and "Barking Dogs, " a few hundred dissidents who made "a lot of noise" protesting, hoping to awaken a grass-roots demand for democracy. The strange rivalry between the Termites and Barking Dogs would ultimately doom perestroika. Spencer's research dispels the widely-held perception that US President Ronald Reagan "won" the Cold War by standing firm until the Soviet Union "blinked first." There are vitally important lessons to be learned from the Soviet period, about how to assist citizens of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes around the world. The irony is that transnational civil society organizations, major sources of the progress in Soviet Russia, are still needed today in authoritarian Russia, under Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, for totalitarianism remains a potential social trap. In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer suggests new ways of building urgently-needed social capital in today's Russia, where democracy has yet to flourish.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Illustrations. Series Editor's Preface. Acknowledgments. Maps.
• 1. Introduction: World War II and the Remaking of the Soviet Union.
• 2. Reform, Reaction, Revolution.
• 3. From Plan to Market.
• 4. Structures of Society.
• 5. Public and Private.
• 6. Center and Periphery.
• 7. National Questions.
• 8. Geopolitical Imperatives.
• 9. From Isolationism to Globalization.
• 10. Conclusion: The Second Russian Revolution? Notes. Guide to Further Reading. Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Taking the achievements, ambiguities, and legacies of World War II as a point of departure, The Shadow of War: The Soviet Union and Russia, 1941 to the Present offers a fresh new approach to modern Soviet and Russian history. Presents one of the only histories of the Soviet Union and Russia that begins with World War II and goes beyond the Soviet collapse through to the early twenty-first century Innovative thematic arrangement and approach allows for insights that are missed in chronological histories Draws on a wide range of sources and the very latest research on post-Soviet history, a rapidly developing field Supported by further reading, bibliography, maps and illustrations.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Valdai
• Grandparents
• When parents were young
• Maria Fedorovna
• Our neighborhood
• Zhenia and Natasha
• Toys "r" us
• Daily life
• Watching Channel 1
• School
• Pioneer parade
• A trip to East Germany
• Polaroid picture
• Satan
• The door without a handle.

• Foreword By Leonidas Donskis Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Soviet Union on my mind
• Chapter 2: The Soviet Union in 1980
• Chapter 3: The world of couriers
• Chapter 4: Campaigning for dissidents
• Chapter 5: Demonstrating in Poland
• Chapter 6: Playing "musical chairs" with the WPA
• Chapter 7: The Soviet Union in 1985
• Chapter 8: Sleeping behind my desk
• Chapter 9: Intermission, and back to work
• Chapter 10: The gorillas of Sakharov
• Chapter 11: The mouse and the elephant
• Chapter 12: Playing chess in Athens
• Chapter 13: The Soviet Union in 1990
• Chapter 14: The doors are opened
• Chapter 15: Ukraine on the map
• Chapter 16: The Romanian marsh
• Chapter 17: Change of course in Bratislava
• Chapter 18: From black and white to shades of grey
• Chapter 19: From humanitarian aid to structural aid
• Chapter 20: Romance with the WPA
• Chapter 21: New style abuse
• Chapter 22: A successful failure
• Chapter 23: Renewed struggle with the WPA
• Chapter 24: Into prison
• Chapter 25: Becoming Lithuanian
• Chapter 26: Reforming against the wind
• Chapter 27: Looking back Epilogue Historical Data Index of Names.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The book contains the memoirs of Robert van Voren covering the period 1977-2008 and provides unique insights into the dissident movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, both inside the country and abroad. As a result of his close friendship with many of the leading dissidents and his dozens of trips to the USSR as a courier, he had intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of the dissident movement and participated in many of the campaigns to obtain the release of Soviet political prisoners. In the late 1980s he became involved in building a humane and ethical practice of psychiatry in Eastern Europe and the (ex-) USSR, based on respect for the human rights of persons with mental illness. The book describes the dissident movement and many of the people who formed it, mental health reformers in Eastern Europe and the response of the Western psychiatric community, the battle with the World Psychiatric Association over Soviet, and later, Chinese political abuse of psychiatry, his contacts with former KGB officers and problems with the KGB's successor organization, the FSB. It also vividly describes the emotional effects of serving as a courier for the dissident movement, the fear of arrest, the pain of seeing friends disappear for many years into camps and prisons, sometimes never to return.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. Russia Before 1980: 1. Muscovy and the West
• 2. Reform communism
• Part II. Gorbachev: 3. Pandora's box
• 4. Blindman's bluff
• 5. Squalid superpower
• Part III. Yeltsin: 6. Demolition and system building
• 7. Crisis management
• Part IV. Putin: 8. Authoritarian reconsolidation
• 9. Heritage and neglect
• Part V. Advance and Retreat: 10. Semblance of democracy
• 11. Social change and adaptation
• 12. International relations
• Part VI. Prospects: 13. Sustainable growth
• 14. Russia in the Chinese looking glass
• Glossary.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Russia Since 1980 recounts the epochal political, economic, and social changes that destroyed the Soviet Union, ushering in a perplexing new order. Two decades after Mikhail Gorbachev initiated regime-wrecking radical reforms, Russia has reemerged as a superpower. It has survived a hyperdepression, modernized, restored private property and business, adopted a liberal democratic persona, and asserted claims to global leadership. Many in the West perceive these developments as proof of a better globalized tomorrow, while others foresee a new cold war. Globalizers contend that Russia is speedily democratizing, marketizing, and humanizing, creating a regime based on the rule of law and respect for civil rights. Opponents counterclaim that Russia before and during the Soviet period was similarly misportrayed and insist that Medvedev's Russia is just another variation of an authoritarian 'Muscovite' model that has prevailed for over five centuries. The cases for both positions are explored while chronicling events since 1980.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. Russia Before 1980: 1. Muscovy and the West
• 2. Reform communism
• Part II. Gorbachev: 3. Pandora's box
• 4. Blindman's bluff
• 5. Squalid superpower
• Part III. Yeltsin: 6. Demolition and system building
• 7. Crisis management
• Part IV. Putin: 8. Authoritarian reconsolidation
• 9. Heritage and neglect
• Part V. Advance and Retreat: 10. Semblance of democracy
• 11. Social change and adaptation
• 12. International relations
• Part VI. Prospects: 13. Sustainable growth
• 14. Russia in the Chinese looking glass
• Glossary.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Russia Since 1980 recounts the epochal political, economic, and social changes that destroyed the Soviet Union, ushering in a perplexing new order. Two decades after Mikhail Gorbachev initiated regime-wrecking radical reforms, Russia has reemerged as a superpower. It has survived a hyperdepression, modernized, restored private property and business, adopted a liberal democratic persona, and asserted claims to global leadership. Many in the West perceive these developments as proof of a better globalized tomorrow, while others foresee a new cold war. Globalizers contend that Russia is speedily democratizing, marketizing, and humanizing, creating a regime based on the rule of law and respect for civil rights. Opponents counterclaim that Russia before and during the Soviet period was similarly misportrayed and insist that Medvedev's Russia is just another variation of an authoritarian 'Muscovite' model that has prevailed for over five centuries. The cases for both positions are explored while chronicling events since 1980.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. Russia Before 1980: 1. Muscovy and the West
• 2. Reform communism
• Part II. Gorbachev: 3. Pandora's box
• 4. Blindman's bluff
• 5. Squalid superpower
• Part III. Yeltsin: 6. Demolition and system building
• 7. Crisis management
• Part IV. Putin: 8. Authoritarian reconsolidation
• 9. Heritage and neglect
• Part V. Advance and Retreat: 10. Semblance of democracy
• 11. Social change and adaptation
• 12. International relations
• Part VI. Prospects: 13. Sustainable growth
• 14. Russia in the Chinese looking glass
• Glossary.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Russia Since 1980 recounts the epochal political, economic, and social changes that destroyed the Soviet Union, ushering in a perplexing new order. Two decades after Mikhail Gorbachev initiated regime-wrecking radical reforms, Russia has reemerged as a superpower. It has survived a hyperdepression, modernized, restored private property and business, adopted a liberal democratic persona, and asserted claims to global leadership. Many in the West perceive these developments as proof of a better globalized tomorrow, while others foresee a new cold war. Globalizers contend that Russia is speedily democratizing, marketizing, and humanizing, creating a regime based on the rule of law and respect for civil rights. Opponents counterclaim that Russia before and during the Soviet period was similarly misportrayed and insist that Medvedev's Russia is just another variation of an authoritarian 'Muscovite' model that has prevailed for over five centuries. The cases for both positions are explored while chronicling events since 1980.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Alternatives and Fates
• 1. Bukharin's Fate
• 2. The Victims Return: Gulag Survivors Since Stalin
• 3. The Tragedy of Soviet Conservatism
• 4. Was the Soviet System Reformable?
• 5. The Fate of the Soviet Union: Why Did It End?
• 6. Gorbachev's Lost Legacies
• 7. Who Lost the Post-Soviet Peace? About the Notes Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

With conflicts again dividing Russia and the United States, the need for balanced, accessible scholarship that benefits from new materials and critical perspectives is imperative. In seven lucid, groundbreaking essays, Stephen F. Cohen questions many conventional assumptions about the course of Soviet history, the fall of communism, and the effect of Russia's policies at home and abroad.Written for specialists and general readers, Cohen's essays are framed by a chronological narrative that focuses on key turning points and lost alternatives. Beginning with Stalin's preeminent challenger and victim, Nikolai Bukharin, and the unexpected return of millions of survivors of Stalin's terror under Nikita Khrushchev, Cohen shows how their tragic fates shaped the latter-day Soviet Union. Turning to more recent events, he examines the political fates of the Soviet system's greatest reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his leading conservative rival, Yegor Ligachev. Through these figures, Cohen raises even more provocative issues, including his argument that the Soviet Union was capable of reform and that its breakup was not inevitable. Most urgently, in two concluding chapters Cohen argues that Washington was the first to squander the opportunity for a fundamentally new U.S.-Russian relationship after the Cold War, and he presents a radically new approach for achieving a necessary partnership with today's Russia.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Prologue: The fate of Zhivago's intelligentsia
• The "children" grow up, 1945-1955
• Shock effects, 1956-1958
• Rediscovery of the world, 1955-1961
• Optimists on the move, 1957-1961
• The intelligentsia reborn, 1959-1962
• The vanguard disowned, 1962-1964
• Searching for roots, 1961-1967
• Between reform and dissent, 1965-1968
• The long decline, 1968-1985
• Epilogue: The end of the intelligentsia.

Among the least-chronicled aspects of post - World War II European intellectual and cultural history is the story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin. Young Soviet veterans had returned from the heroic struggle to defeat Hitler only to confront the repression of Stalinist society. The world of the intelligentsia exerted an attraction for them, as it did for many recent university graduates. In its moral fervor and its rejection of authoritarianism, this new generation of intellectuals resembled the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia that had been crushed by revolutionary terror and Stalinist purges. The last representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, heartened by Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism in 1956, took their inspiration from the visionary aims of their nineteenth-century predecessors and from the revolutionary aspirations of 1917. In pursuing the dream of a civil, democratic socialist society, such idealists contributed to the political disintegration of the communist regime. Vladislav Zubok turns a compelling subject into a portrait as intimate as it is provocative. The highly educated elite - those who became artists, poets, writers, historians, scientists, and teachers - played a unique role in galvanizing their country to strive toward a greater freedom. Like their contemporaries in the United States, France, and Germany, members of the Russian intelligentsia had a profound effect during the 1960s, in sounding a call for reform, equality, and human rights that echoed beyond their time and place. Zhivago's children, the spiritual heirs of Boris Pasternak's noble doctor, were the last of their kind - an intellectual and artistic community committed to a civic, cultural, and moral mission.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Prologue: The fate of Zhivago's intelligentsia
• The "children" grow up, 1945-1955
• Shock effects, 1956-1958
• Rediscovery of the world, 1955-1961
• Optimists on the move, 1957-1961
• The intelligentsia reborn, 1959-1962
• The vanguard disowned, 1962-1964
• Searching for roots, 1961-1967
• Between reform and dissent, 1965-1968
• The long decline, 1968-1985
• Epilogue: The end of the intelligentsia.

Among the least-chronicled aspects of post - World War II European intellectual and cultural history is the story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin. Young Soviet veterans had returned from the heroic struggle to defeat Hitler only to confront the repression of Stalinist society. The world of the intelligentsia exerted an attraction for them, as it did for many recent university graduates. In its moral fervor and its rejection of authoritarianism, this new generation of intellectuals resembled the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia that had been crushed by revolutionary terror and Stalinist purges. The last representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, heartened by Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism in 1956, took their inspiration from the visionary aims of their nineteenth-century predecessors and from the revolutionary aspirations of 1917. In pursuing the dream of a civil, democratic socialist society, such idealists contributed to the political disintegration of the communist regime. Vladislav Zubok turns a compelling subject into a portrait as intimate as it is provocative. The highly educated elite - those who became artists, poets, writers, historians, scientists, and teachers - played a unique role in galvanizing their country to strive toward a greater freedom. Like their contemporaries in the United States, France, and Germany, members of the Russian intelligentsia had a profound effect during the 1960s, in sounding a call for reform, equality, and human rights that echoed beyond their time and place. Zhivago's children, the spiritual heirs of Boris Pasternak's noble doctor, were the last of their kind - an intellectual and artistic community committed to a civic, cultural, and moral mission.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• INTRODUCTION
• PART 1: PHENOMENAL KNOWLEDGE
• 1. WHAT ROBOMARY KNOWS, DANIEL DENNET, TUFTS UNIVERSITY
• 2. SO THIS IS WHAT IT'S LIKE: A DEFENSE OF THE ABILITY HYPOTHESIS, LAURENCE NEMIROW, DAVIS GRAHAM & STUBBS INCOME TAX, BENEFITS & ESTATE GROUP
• 3. THE KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENT, DIAPHANOUSNESS, REPRESENTATIONALISM, FRANK JACKSON, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, BRITISH ACADEMY, AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN AUSTRALIA, AND FAND INSTITUT INTERNATIONAL DE PHILOSOPHIE
• 4. DOES REPRESENTATIONALISM UNDERMINE THE KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENT?, TORIN ALTER, THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
• 5. WHAT IS THIS THING YOU CALL COLOR: CAN A TOTALLY COLOR-BLIND PERSON KNOW ABOUT COLOR?, KNUT NORDBY, FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF OSLO AND TELNOR COMMUNICATIONS, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
• PART 2: PHENOMENAL CONCEPTS
• 6. WHAT IS A PHENOMENAL CONCEPT?, JANET LEVIN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
• 7. PHENOMENAL AND PERCEPTUAL CONEPTS, DAVID PAPINEAU, KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
• 8. PHENOMENAL CONCEPTS AND THE MATERIALIST CONSTRAINT, JOSEPH LEVINE, THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST
• 9. PHENOMENAL CONCEPTS AND THE EXPLANATORY GAP, DAVID CHALMERS, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
• 10. DIRECT REFERENCE AND DANCING QUALIA, JOHN HAWTHORNE, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
• 11. PROPERTY DUALISM, PHENOMENAL CONCEPTS, AND THE SEMANTIC PREMISE, STEPHEN WHITE, TUFTS UNIVERSITY
• 12. MAX BLACK'S OBJECTION TO MIND-BRAIN IDENTITY, NED BLOCK, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
• 13. GRASPING PHENOMENAL PROPERTIES, MARTINE NIDA-RUMELIN, UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

• PREFACE TO THE SECOND PAPERBACK EDITION
• NOTE ON THE TEXT
• LIST OF PLATES
• LIST OF MAPS
• INTRODUCTION
• 1. Historys cruel tricks
• 2. Reviving the dream
• 3. The drama of reform
• 4. Waiting for the end of the world
• 5. Survival and cannibalism in the rust belt
• 6. Democracy without liberalism?
• 7. Idealism and treason
• EPILOGUE
• NOTES
• FURTHER READING
• INDEX.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Featuring extensive revisions to the text as well as a new introduction and epilogue-bringing the book completely up to date on the tumultuous politics of the previous decade and the long-term implications of the Soviet collapse-this compact, original, and engaging book offers the definitive account of one of the great historical events of the last fifty years. Combining historical and geopolitical analysis with an absorbing narrative, Kotkin draws upon extensive research, including memoirs by dozens of insiders and senior figures, to illuminate the factors that led to the demise of Communism and the USSR. The new edition puts the collapse in the context of the global economic and political changes from the 1970s to the present day. Kotkin creates a compelling profile of post Soviet Russia and he reminds us, with chilling immediacy, of what could not have been predicted-that the world's largest police state, with several million troops, a doomsday arsenal, and an appalling record of violence, would liquidate itself with barely a whimper. Throughout the book, Kotkin also paints vivid portraits of key personalities. Using recently released archive materials, for example, he offers a fascinating picture of Gorbachev, describing this virtuoso tactician and resolutely committed reformer as "flabbergasted by the fact that his socialist renewal was leading to the system's liquidation"-and more or less going along with it. At once authoritative and provocative, Armageddon Averted illuminates the collapse of the Soviet Union, revealing how "principled restraint and scheming self interest brought a deadly system to meek dissolution." Acclaim for the First Edition: "The clearest picture we have to date of the post-Soviet landscape." --The New Yorker "A triumph of the art of contemporary history. In fewer than 200 pagesKotkin elucidates the implosion of the Soviet empire-the most important and startling series of international events of the past fifty years-and clearly spells out why, thanks almost entirely to the 'principal restraint' of the Soviet leadership, that collapse didn't result in a cataclysmic war, as all experts had long forecasted." -The Atlantic Monthly "Concise and persuasive The mystery, for Kotkin, is not so much why the Soviet Union collapsed as why it did so with so little collateral damage." --The New York Review of Books.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The sudden ending of the Cold War, surely the dominant feature of the second half of the 20th century, continues to be one of the most unexpected and perplexing events of our time. Explanations provided by the winners and losers in the Cold War differ considerably and often contradict each other. Even taken together they do not provide a compelling answer to the key question: why did it happen?"Gorbachev's Gamble" offers a new and more convincing answer to this question by providing the missing link between the internal and external aspects of Gorbachev's perestroika. Andrei Grachev shows that the radically transformed Soviet foreign policy during the Gorbachev years was an integral part of an ambitious project of internal democratic reform and of the historic opening of Soviet society to the outside world. Grachev explains the motives and the intentions of the initiators of this project and describes their hopes and their illusions. He recounts the story of the internal debates and struggles in the Kremlin and behind-the-scene decisions that led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Warsaw Pact and eventually the demise of the Soviet Union itself.The book is based on exclusive interviews with the leaders of the Soviet Union including Gorbachev, personal notes and diaries of their assistants and advisers and transcripts of the discussions inside the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee. Together they constitute a multi-voice political confession of a whole generation of decision-makers and opinion leaders of the Soviet Union that enables us better to understand the origin and the breathtaking trajectory of the events that led to the end of the Cold War and the unprecedented transformation of world politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The grandeur and the fall of empires
• Modern economic growth and the era of empires
• Crisis and the dismantling of overseas empires
• Problems of dissolving territorially integrated empires
• The yugoslav tragedy
• Authoritarian regimes: the causes of instability
• Challenges in the early stages of modern economic growth and authoritarianism
• The instability of authoritarian regimes
• Mechanics of the collapse of authoritarianism
• The oil curse
• The Spanish prologue
• Resource wealth and economic development
• Specifics of the oil market
• Regulating the oil market in the twentieth century
• Challenges related to price fluctuations of commodities: Mexico and Venezuela
• In search of a way out: a response to the dangers of unstable commodity pricing
• Cracks in the foundation: the Soviet Union in the early 1980s
• Growing problems and bad decisions
• Food supply problems
• Food shortages-a strategic challenge
• The USSR as the largest importer of food
• Oil in Western Siberia: the illusion of salvation
• A drop in oil prices: the final blow
• The collapse of the USSR: the unexpected becomes the rule
• The political economy of external shocks
• Deteriorating conditions for foreign trade: political alternatives
• The ussr and the drop in oil prices: the essence of the choice
• A series of mistakes
• Mounting problems in the soviet economy
• The hard currency crisis
• Economic and political liberalization against the background of the hard currency and financial problems
• Development of the crisis of the socialist system
• Political credits
• The price of compromise
• The crisis of the empire and the nationality question
• Loss of control over the economic and political situation
• The currency crisis
• From crisis to catastrophe
• "Extraordinary efforts" instead of reforms
• On the brink of default
• On the path to state bankruptcy
• The grain problem
• Prices skyrocket
• Money and the fate of the empire
• The fall
• The political economy of the failed coup
• Political death throes
• Political disintegration: economic consequences
• A civilized divorce.

My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would collapse.... -From the Introduction to Collapse of an Empire The Soviet Union was an empire in many senses of the word -a vast mix of far-flung regions and accidental citizens by way of conquest or annexation. Typical of such empires, it was built on shaky foundations. That instability made its demise inevitable, asserts Yegor Gaidar, former prime minister of Russia and architect of the "shock therapy" economic reforms of the 1990s. Yet a growing desire to return to the glory days of empire is pushing today's Russia backward into many of the same traps that made the Soviet Union untenable. In this important new book, Gaidar clearly illustrates why Russian nostalgia for empire is dangerous and ill-fated: "Dreams of returning to another era are illusory. Attempts to do so will lead to defeat." Gaidar uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why swimming against this tide of history would be a huge mistake. The USSR sowed the seeds of its own economic destruction, and Gaidar worries that Russia is repeating some of those mistakes. Once again, for example, the nation is putting too many eggs into one basket, leaving the nation vulnerable to fluctuations in the energy market. The Soviets had used revenues from energy sales to prop up struggling sectors such as agriculture, which was so thoroughly ravaged by hyperindustrialization that the Soviet Union became a net importer of food. When oil prices dropped in the 1980s, that revenue stream diminished, and dependent sectors suffered heavily. Although strategies requiring austerity or sacrifice can be politically difficult, Russia needs to prepare for such downturns and restrain spending during prosperous times. Collapse of an Empire shows why it is imperative to fix the roof before it starts to rain, and why sometimes the past should be left in the past.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. The Soviet people and Stalin between war and peace, 1945
• 2. Stalin's road to the Cold War, 1945-1948
• 3. Stalemate in Germany, 1945-1953
• 4. Kremlin politics and "peaceful coexistence, " 1953-1957
• 5. The nuclear education of Khrushchev, 1953-1963
• 6. The Soviet home front : first cracks, 1953-1968
• 7. Brezhnev and the road to détente, 1965-1972
• 8. Détente's decline and Soviet overreach, 1973-1979
• 9. The old Guard's exit, 1980-1987
• 10. Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power, 1988-1991.

Western interpretations of the Cold War - both realist and neoconservative - have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the twentieth century. Using recently declassified Politburo records, ciphered telegrams, diaries, and taped conversations, among other sources, Zubok explores the origins of the superpowers' confrontation under Stalin, Khrushchev's contradictory and counter-productive attempts to ease tensions, the surprising story of Brezhnev's passion for detente, and Gorbachev's destruction of the Soviet superpower as the by-product of his hasty steps to end the Cold War and to reform the Soviet Union. The first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side, "A Failed Empire" provides a history different from those written by the Western victors.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Western interpretations of the Cold War - both realist and neoconservative - have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the twentieth century. Using recently declassified Politburo records, ciphered telegrams, diaries, and taped conversations, among other sources, Zubok explores the origins of the superpowers' confrontation under Stalin, Khrushchev's contradictory and counter-productive attempts to ease tensions, the surprising story of Brezhnev's passion for detente, and Gorbachev's destruction of the Soviet superpower as the by-product of his hasty steps to end the Cold War and to reform the Soviet Union. The first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side, "A Failed Empire" provides a history different from those written by the Western victors.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface
• Glossary and abbreviations
• pt. 1
• 1. Introduction
• pt. 2
• 2. Gorbachev : new man in the Kremlin
• 3. The first phase of Soviet reform, 1985-6
• 4. Fundamental political change, 1987-9
• 5. Reconstructing the Soviet political system
• pt. 3
• 6. Institutional amphibiousness or civil society? The origins and development of Perestroika
• 7. The dismantling of the system and the disintegration of the state
• 8. Transnational influences in the transition from communism
• 9. Ending the Cold War
• 10. Gorbachev and his era in perspective
• Index.

A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, written by a leading authority on Soviet politics. This thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective. - ; A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, the disintegration of the Soviet state, the end of the Cold War, and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev. Written by a leading authority on Soviet politics, this thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective. Perestroika began as an attempt by a minority within the leadership of the Communist Party to reform the Soviet system. The decisive role was played by the new General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika (reconstruction) developed into an attempt to move from Communism to competitive elections and a market economy of a social democratic type. This 'revolution from above' had profound consequences, both intended and unintended. The latter included the dissolution of the Soviet state. Four of the ten chapters were written in 'real time' - in the second half of the 1980s while perestroika was still underway. The other six chapters provide an up-to-date discussion of such important issues as the stimuli to perestroika, its intellectual origins and development, its influence on other countries and their influence on developments in the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War. Archie Brown takes issue with a number of popular interpretations of perestroika - and of the end of the Cold War - and draws on new archival sources in a book which is both clearly and vigorously argued and well documented. - ; ... the book will encourage readers to revive their memories of the excitement of the Gorbachev years and to refine their own opinions on the man himself and.
Existence of serious reformers inside the Soviet establishment. History proved him right, and his critics wrong. Now, as this volume shows, he has the Soviet archives on his side as well - Mary Dejevsky (The Times Moscow correspondent during perestroika), Oxford Today.
His policies. - Paul Dukes History Today; There are few who can compete with Professor Brown in intensity of attention to Soviet politics and Soviet institutions, in nuanced approach, and in painstaking analysis - Lilia Shevtsova, Pro et Contra; Mikhail Gorbachev's most important biographer here passes judgement on the man and the process he unleashed ... The book's first part comprises four pieces written at the time of perestroika, which in retrospect were remarkably perceptive. In the years since, the mounting archival and memoir evidence - and Brown brings much of it to bear - has only strengthened his argument - Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs; 'The real genius of the end of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Archie Brown has been his closest and best commentator.' - Financial Times; 'The bulk of the book is a necessary reminder of what Mr Gorbachev and perestroika achieved - even if inadvertently. For what, asks Mr Brown, did Mr Gorbachev sacrifice "the boundless authority, the unquestioning obedience, the orchestrated public adulation"? For freedom of speech, freedom of religion, competitive elections and a host of other accomplishments. The author rightly concludes that the "democratic shortcomings of post-Soviet Russia notwithstanding, the country that Gorbachev bequeathed to his successors was freer than at any time in Russian history".' - The Economist; Demonstrating his meticulous scholarship and painstaking research, Brown adapts to the Soviet scene the concept of "institutional amphibiousness", by which some parts of the state system can simultaneously work for functions and purposes contradictory to those of the state' - Times Literary Supplement; in the 1980s Brown had to field his share of brickbats from those who accused him of wishful thinking about the very

• PART 1
• 1. Introduction
• PART 2
• 2. Gorbachev: New Man in the Kremlin
• 3. The First Phase of Soviet Reform, 1985-86
• 4. Fundamental Political Change, 1987-89
• 5. Reconstructing the Soviet Political System
• PART 3
• 6. Institutional Amphibiousness or Civil Society? The Origins and Development of Perestroika
• 7. The Dismantling of the System and the Disintegration of the State
• 8. Transnational Influences in the Transition from Communism
• 9. Ending the Cold War
• 10. Gorbachev and His Era in Perspective
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, the disintegration of the Soviet state, the end of the Cold War, and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev. Written by a leading authority on Soviet politics, this thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective. Perestroika began as an attempt by a minority within the leadership of the Communist Party to reform the Soviet system. The decisive role was played by the new General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika (reconstruction) developed into an attempt to move from Communism to competitive elections and a market economy of a social democratic type. This 'revolution from above' had profound consequences, both intended and unintended. The latter included the dissolution of the Soviet state. Four of the ten chapters were written in 'real time' - in the second half of the 1980s while perestroika was still underway. The other six chapters provide an up-to-date discussion of such important issues as the stimuli to perestroika, its intellectual origins and development, its influence on other countries and their influence on developments in the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War. Archie Brown takes issue with a number of popular interpretations of perestroika - and of the end of the Cold War - and draws on new archival sources in a book which is both clearly and vigorously argued and well documented.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction / Boris Yeltsin, Russian Liberator
• 1. Refore or Revolution? Yeltsin and Gorbachev, 1987-1991--From Colleagues to Rivals--Yeltsin Builds an Opposition Program and Russian Base--Challenging the Center--Counterrevolution and Democratic Revolution--Replacing the Union--Epilogue
• 2. The Politics of Reform, 1991-1999--Facing Communist Opposition--Conflicts over Policy and Consitutional Structure--Blocking Constitutional Reform--Reform and Rebellion--The New Constitutional Order--Parliamentary and Presidential Elections--The Final Phase of Yeltsin's Leadership: Economic and Political Crisis--Yeltsin Seeks a Successor
• 3. Building A New Economy--The Legacy of Gorbachev's Economic Reforms--The Politics and Economics of the Yeltsin Reforms--The Long Struggle for Agricultural Reform--Yeltsin's Achievement in Economic Reform
• 4. The New Russia and the World--Russia and the West--Russia and East Asia--Russia and the Other Former Soviet Republics--An Overview of Russian Foreign Policy under Yeltsin The Yeltsin Legacy NotesSelected BibliographyIndex.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Boris Yeltsin is one of modern history's most dynamic and underappreciated figures. In this vivid, analytical masterwork, Herbert J. Ellison establishes Yeltsin as the principal leader and defender of Russia's democratic revolution - the very embodiment of Russia's fragile new liberties, including the evolving respect for the rule of law and private property as well as core freedoms of speech, religion, press, and political association. In 1987 President Mikhail Gorbachev expelled Boris Yeltsin from his team of reform politicians, but Yeltsin rebounded from this potentially devastating setback to become the leader of the Russian democratic movement. He created a new office of Russian president, to which he was elected; designed a democratic constitution for the Soviet Union that precipitated a coup attempt by traditionalist communist leaders; granted independence to the nations of the Soviet Union; and replaced Communist Party rule with democracy and the socialist economy with a market economy. In a short period, he had succeeded in becoming the first popularly elected leader in a thousand years of Russian history. He had blocked violent attempts at counter-revolution and overcome powerful resistance to his reform program. His achievements rank among the most extraordinary feats of political leadership in the twentieth century.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. "Sasha the Muscovite": Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Konstantinov
• 2. "Back then I really wanted to join the party": Natalia Valentinovna Altukhova (maiden name Pronina)
• 3. "We grew up in a normal time": Natalia P.
• 4. "Our entire generation ... welcomed perestroika": Arkadii Olegovich Darchenko
• 5. "I saw the life of my country, and thereby my own, from a variety of perspectives": Natalia Aleksandrovna Belovolova (maiden name Ianichkina)
• 6. "It's very hard to be a woman in our country": Olga Vladimirovna Kamaiurova
• 7. "I came to understand things, but only gradually": Aleksandr Vladimirovich Trubnikov
• 8. "People have lost a great deal in terms of their confidence in tomorrow": Gennadii Viktorovich Ivanov.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"Russia's Sputnik Generation" presents the life stories of eight 1967 graduates of School No. 42 in the Russian city of Saratov. Born in 1949/50, these four men and four women belong to the first generation conceived during the Soviet Union's return to 'normality' following World War II. Well educated, articulate, and loosely networked even today, they were first-graders the year the USSR launched Sputnik, and grew up in a country that increasingly distanced itself from the excesses of Stalinism.Reaching middle age during the Gorbachev Revolution, they negotiated the transition to a Russian-style market economy and remain active, productive members of society in Russia and the diaspora. In candid interviews with Donald J. Raleigh, these Soviet 'baby boomers' talk about the historical times in which they grew up, but also about their everyday experiences - their family backgrounds; childhood pastimes; favourite books, movies, and music; and influential people in their lives. These personal testimonies shed valuable light on Soviet childhood and adolescence, on the reasons and course of perestroika, and on the wrenching transition that has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Russian Moral Traditions before 1917
• 3. Tension and Change in Revolutionary Ethics
• 4. Moral Experience under Stalin
• 5. The Rebirth of Conscience under Khrushchev
• 6. The Ethics of the Human Rights Movement
• 7. In Search of Inner Freedom
• 8. Dialogue and Division in the Dissident Movement
• 9. Conscience in Literature
• 10. Moral Aspects of In-System Dissent
• 11. The Ethics of the Party Reformers
• 12. Conscience and Repentance during Glasnost
• 13. The Democratic Movement and its Dilemmas
• 14. Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book embraces the political, intellectual, social and cultural history of Soviet Russia. Providing a useful perspective of Putin's Russia, and with a strong historical and religious background, the book: looks at the changing features of the Soviet ideology from Lenin to Stalin, and the moral universe of Stalin's time explores the history of the moral thinking of the dissident intelligentsia examines the moral dimension of Soviet dissent amongst dissidents of both religious and secular persuasions, and includes biographical material explores the ethical assumptions of the perestroika era, firstly amongst Communist leaders, and then in the emerging democratic and national forces.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Russian Moral Traditions before 1917
• 3. Tension and Change in Revolutionary Ethics
• 4. Moral Experience under Stalin
• 5. The Rebirth of Conscience under Khrushchev
• 6. The Ethics of the Human Rights Movement
• 7. In Search of Inner Freedom
• 8. Dialogue and Division in the Dissident Movement
• 9. Conscience in Literature
• 10. Moral Aspects of In-System Dissent
• 11. The Ethics of the Party Reformers
• 12. Conscience and Repentance during Glasnost
• 13. The Democratic Movement and its Dilemmas
• 14. Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book embraces the political, intellectual, social and cultural history of Soviet Russia. Providing a useful perspective of Putin's Russia, and with a strong historical and religious background, the book: looks at the changing features of the Soviet ideology from Lenin to Stalin, and the moral universe of Stalin's time explores the history of the moral thinking of the dissident intelligentsia examines the moral dimension of Soviet dissent amongst dissidents of both religious and secular persuasions, and includes biographical material explores the ethical assumptions of the perestroika era, firstly amongst Communist leaders, and then in the emerging democratic and national forces.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Children of Terror
• 2. The Invention of Glasnost
• 3. The Rights-Defenders
• 4. The Fabrication of Russophobia
• 5. The Politics of Russophobia.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

During the 1970s, dissidents like Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn dominated Western perceptions of the USSR, but were then quickly forgotten, as Gorbachev's reformers monopolised the spotlight. This book restores the dissidents to their rightful place in Russian history. Using a vast array of samizdat and published sources, it shows how ideas formulated in the dissident milieu clashed with the original programme of perestroika, and shaped the course of democratisation in post-Soviet Russia. Some of these ideas - such the dissidents' preoccupation with glasnost and legality, and their critique of revolutionary violence - became part of the agenda of Russia's democratic movement. But this book also demonstrates that dissidents played a crucial role in the rise of the new Russian radical nationalism. Both the friends and foes of Russian democracy have a dissident lineage.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• INTRODUCTION PART ONE: BACKGROUND
• 1. GORBACHEV COMES TO POWER Political Overview Glasnost Social, Environmental, and Nuclear Power Issues PART TWO: THE YEARS OF PERESTROIKA
• 2. THE ECONOMY AND FOREIGN POLICY The Economy, 1985-90 Acceleration and Anti-Alcohol Campaigns Coal Miners' Strike Economic Reform Programmes Stagnation The Pavlov Programme Foreign Policy Ideology and Propaganda Arms Control Architects of Soviet Foreign Policy Eastern Europe Ending the Cold War
• 3. THE NATIONAL QUESTION The Submerged Dilemma Nagorno-Katabakh The Baltic States Georgia, Ukraine, and Belarus The Plenum on National Policy, September 1989
• 4. DOMESTIC POLITICS, 1989-MID-AUGUST 1991 The Congress of People's Deputies and New Presidency The 28th Party Congress and Aftermath The Referendum of 17 March 1991 Toward a New Union Treaty
• 5. THE PUTSCH AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR The Putsch, 18-21 August 1991 Administrative Changes The Failure of the Union Treaty Yeltsin Consolidates His Power The Belavezha Agreement PART THREE: ASSESSMENT
• 6. WHY DID THE SOVIET UNION COLLAPSE? PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS Chronology Glossary Who's Who Guide to Further Reading.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Why did the Soviet Union collapse in 1991? The collapse of the Soviet Union has widely been seen as the result of the arms race and Cold War, and the failure of the Soviet side to keep pace with new technology. This book argues that the disintegration was mainly a result of two interrelated factors: the rise of the Soviet national republics, and the manipulation of the new Russian presidency by Boris Yeltsin in what became a direct power struggle between Yeltsin and the Soviet leader, Gorbachev. Written in a clear and accessible manner, the book provides: an explanation of how the national question came to dominate Soviet politics by 1990-1 analysis of the economic crisis that occurred in the late 1980s a chapter devoted to the year 1991, from the referendum to reform the Soviet Union to the unforeseen dissolution of the country by December a discussion of the personalities of and political confrontation between the two key statesman: Gorbachev and Yeltsin Also containing a Chronology, Glossary and Who's Who of key figures, The Collapse of the Soviet Union is essential reading for students of twentieth century European history.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Predicting Political Change
• 1. Theories of Political Change and Prediction of Change: Methodological Problems
• 2. Oligarchic Petrification or Pluralistic Transformation: Paradigmatic Views of the Soviet Union in the 1970s
• 3. Paradigms and the Debate on Relations with the Soviet Union: Detente, New Internationalism, and Neoconservatism
• 4. The Reagan Administration and the Soviet Interregnum: Accelerating the Demise of the Communist Empire
• 5. Acceleration: Tinkering Around the Edges, 1985-1986
• 6. Perestroika: Systemic Change, 1987-1989
• The Unintended Consequences of Radical Transformation: Losing Control of the Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, 1990-1991
• 8. Reflections on Predictive Failures.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Washington's failure to foresee the collapse of its superpower rival ranks high in the pantheon of predictive failures. The question of who got what right or wrong has been intertwined with the deeper issue of "who won" the Cold War. Like the disputes over "who lost" China and Iran, this debate has been fought out along ideological and partisan lines, with conservatives claiming credit for the Evil Empire's demise and liberals arguing that the causes were internal to the Soviet Union. The intelligence community has come in for harsh criticism for overestimating Soviet strength and overlooking the symptoms of crisis; the discipline of "Sovietology" has dissolved into acrimonious irrelevance. Drawing on declassified documents, interviews, and careful analysis of contemporaneous literature, this book offers the first systematic analysis of this predictive failure at the paradigmatic, foreign policy, and intelligence levels. Although it is focused on the Soviet case, it offers lessons that are both timely and necessary.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• A Note on the Text Preface A Background to the Study Nash Sovremennik and Russian Nationalist Ideology, 1981-91 The Brezhnev Succession Crisis and the Russian Challenge Andropov and the Supression of Russian Statist Nationalism From Chernenko to Gorbachev Aleksandr Yakolev and the 'Cultural Offensive' Ligachev and the Conservative Counter-Offensive Chief Editor Kunyaev: From Gorbachev to El'tsin Epilogue: Seven Paradoxes of Russian Nationalism Editorial Structures and Policy-making Biographical Notes on Selected Editors and Authors Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Russia under President Putin stands, as often before, at a crossroads. Can the reforms of the 1990s provide the foundations for a stable, democratic society, or will a new authoritarianism, more in keeping with Russian political traditions, take shape? With the collapse of empire and the creation of the Russian Federation, Russian nationalism is becoming increasingly important in Russian politics. Yet Russian nationalism is not a new phenomenon. Who were the Russian nationalists before the creation of today's Russia? What were their views? What was their political influence? This book seeks answers to these questions by looking in detail at the USSR from 1981 to 1991 through the eyes of a group of leading Russian nationalist intellectuals gathered around the literary journal Nash sovremennik. The author suggests that, in the twenty-first century, a specifically Russian type of nationalism, ethnic and statist, could provide the ideological underpinning for a new authoritarianism.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Sovereignty, federalism, and Soviet nationality policy
• Perestroika and the parade of sovereignties
• Sovereignty for the autonomies
• Multiple sovereignty and the new union treaty
• Sovereignty as independence.

In December 1991, the Soviet Union passed into history as a legal entity, breaking apart into 15 successor states. This book explains why. Walker argues against much of the conventional wisdom and scholarly literature on the break-up, which emphasizes what he calls the "demand side" of the problem, or the role or nationalist mobilization and the rise of separatist aspirations in the USSR's union republics. He points out that support for dissolution was limited to a handful of republics that included only a small portion of the Soviet population. Instead, the author highlights the critical role played by the USSR's ethno-federal system, as well as the normative claims and legitimizing myths of Soviet nationality policy. These institutions and myths empowered the anti-union opposition even in those union republics where they had limited support, and they help account for the highly ineffective strategy that Gorbachev adopted to overcome the USSR's "nationality crisis". Walker also shows how confusion over the meaning of some of the key terms of Soviet political discourse during perestroika- particularly "sovereignty" but also "union", "federation", "confederation" and "independence" - contributed to a "fog of war" that helped bring about the full disintegration of the USSR, an outcome that surprisingly few desired.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
In December 1991, the Soviet Union passed into history as a legal entity, breaking apart into 15 successor states. This clear and convincing book explains why. It emphasizes the critical role of Soviet ethno-federalism, as well as the normative claims and legitimizing myths of Soviet nationality policy. Institutional constraints and legitimizing myths, Walker argues, empowered the anti-union opposition even in republics where it had limited popular support. He also shows how they helped bring about an outcome-the full dissolution of the USSR-that surprisingly few desired.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part 1 The setting of Soviet foreign policy: introduction - the "old political thinking" and the "new"
• the evolution of Soviet foreign policy
• instruments of Soviet foreign policy. Part 2 The regional patterns of Soviet foreign policy: The Soviet Union and the capitalist world
• The Soviet Union and the communist world
• The Soviet Union and the Third World.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Soviet foreign policy has changed radically under Gorbachev. This book focuses on the personal nature of Gorbachev's leadership and the links between his domestic and foreign policy. It also seeks to put recent changes in context by describing the conceptual and institutional nature of foreign policy under previous leaders. Finally, it goes on to examine the effect of new Soviet policies on the rest of the world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
This textbook examines Soviet thinking in the economic, political and military spheres, linking domestic and foreign policies. Part One describes the evolution of its foreign policy; Part Two, details the impact it had on the rest of the world (by region).
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The setting - relations with the Soviet Union, Sovietology and an historical outline
• official analysis of the Soviet Union 1985-1991
• the analysis of Gorbachev's foreign policy in eight elite newspapers
• the Sovietologists.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Weaving together international relations theory with intricate empirical case studies of the United States, United Kingdom, France and Sweden, and their attitudes towards the Soviet Union, this research text should be of use to those studying Western Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union and area studies generally. It compares the response to events in the Soviet Union methodically across four different countries: France, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States, and the research covers the responses among three different types of actors within each country: senior politicians, editorialists, and Sovietologists. The author systematically assesses whether or not any scholar predicted the demise of the Soviet Union, based not on impressions but on scholarly analysis founded on a definition of the terms forecast and prediction. Then, on the basis of the analysis of the attempts to prognosticate the continuation of Gorbachev's reforms, the volume systematically assesses to what extent it may be possible to foretell events and process in social science.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Leadership strategies after Stalin
• 2. Gorbachev and Yeltsin: personalities and beliefs
• 3. The rise of Gorbachev
• 4. Gorbachev ascendant
• 5. Gorbachev on the political defensive
• 6. Yeltsin versus Gorbachev
• 7. Yeltsin ascendant
• 8. Yeltsin on the political defensive
• 9. Yeltsin lashes out: the invasion of Chechnya (Dec. 1994)
• 10. Yeltsin's many last hurrahs
• 11. Explaining leaders' choices, 1985-1999
• 12. Criteria for the evaluation of transformational leaders
• 13. Evaluating Gorbachev as leader
• 14. Evaluating Yeltsin as leader.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders examines the strategies employed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to build leadership authority. Political leaders often use a combination of coercion, material reward, and persuasion, but Professor Breslauer focuses on the power of ideas, as leaders use them to mobilize support and to craft an image as effective problem solvers, indispensable consensus builders, and symbols of national unity. In Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics (1982), he documented Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's domestic policy strategies; this book handles domestic and foreign policies. All chapters compare Gorbachev and Yeltsin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, mostly analyzing the changes in policy, the strategies, and the political dilemmas that are common to all four administrations. The book discusses the ways in which authority building was affected by political constraints unique to each of the stages.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. From the impossible to the inevitable
• 2. The tide and the mobilizational cycle
• 3. Structuring nationalism
• 4. 'Thickened' history and the mobilization of identity
• 5. Tides and the failure of nationalist mobilization
• 6. Violence and tides of nationalism
• 7. The transcendence of regimes of repression
• 8. Russian mobilization and the accumulating 'inevitability' of Soviet collapse
• 9. Conclusion: nationhood and event.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This 2002 study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987 - the disintegration of the Soviet state - became the seemingly inevitable by 1991, providing an original interpretation not only of the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes data and case studies from across the USSR during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Beissinger demonstrates, the 'tidal' context of nationalism - i.e., the transnational influence of one nationalism upon another - is critical to an explanation of the success and failure of particular nationalisms, why some nationalisms turn violent, and how a crescendo of events can overwhelm states, periodically evoking large-scale structural change in the character of the state system.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. From the impossible to the inevitable
• 2. The tide and the mobilizational cycle
• 3. Structuring nationalism
• 4. 'Thickened' history and the mobilization of identity
• 5. Tides and the failure of nationalist mobilization
• 6. Violence and tides of nationalism
• 7. The transcendence of regimes of repression
• 8. Russian mobilization and the accumulating 'inevitability' of Soviet collapse
• 9. Conclusion: nationhood and event.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This 2002 study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987 - the disintegration of the Soviet state - became the seemingly inevitable by 1991, providing an original interpretation not only of the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes data and case studies from across the USSR during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Beissinger demonstrates, the 'tidal' context of nationalism - i.e., the transnational influence of one nationalism upon another - is critical to an explanation of the success and failure of particular nationalisms, why some nationalisms turn violent, and how a crescendo of events can overwhelm states, periodically evoking large-scale structural change in the character of the state system.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. From the impossible to the inevitable
• 2. The tide and the mobilizational cycle
• 3. Structuring nationalism
• 4. 'Thickened' history and the mobilization of identity
• 5. Tides and the failure of nationalist mobilization
• 6. Violence and tides of nationalism
• 7. The transcendence of regimes of repression
• 8. Russian mobilization and the accumulating 'inevitability' of Soviet collapse
• 9. Conclusion: nationhood and event.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This 2002 study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987 - the disintegration of the Soviet state - became the seemingly inevitable by 1991, providing an original interpretation not only of the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes data and case studies from across the USSR during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Beissinger demonstrates, the 'tidal' context of nationalism - i.e., the transnational influence of one nationalism upon another - is critical to an explanation of the success and failure of particular nationalisms, why some nationalisms turn violent, and how a crescendo of events can overwhelm states, periodically evoking large-scale structural change in the character of the state system.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

In the Cold War era that dominated the second half of the 20th century, nobody envisaged that the collapse of the Soviet Union would come from within, still less that it would happen meekly, without global conflagration. In this compact book, Stephen Kotkin shows that the Soviet collapse resulted not from military competition but, ironically, from the dynamism of Communist ideology, the long-held dream for "socialism with a human face". The neo-liberal reforms in post-Soviet Russia never took place, nor could they have, given the Soviet-era inheritance in the social, political and economic landscape. Kotkin takes us deep into post-Stalin Soviet society and institutions, into the everyday hopes and secret political intrigues that affected 285 million people, before and after 1991. He conveys the high drama of a superpower falling apart while armed to the teeth with millions of loyal troops and tens of thousands of weapons of mass destruction. "Armageddon Averted" vividly demonstrates the overriding importance of history, individual ambition, geopolitics and institutions, and deftly draws out contemporary Russia's contradictory predicament.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface - two riddles collapsed together
• introduction - history's cruel tricks
• reviving the dream
• the drama of reform
• waiting for the end of the world
• survival and cannibalism in the rust belt
• democracy without liberalism
• conclusion - idealism and treason.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Stephen Kotkin charts the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the key developments in recent history, and analyzes why it happened. He examines the internal structural, cultural and political reasons for the demise both of the Communist system and of the Union, drawing on memoirs and documents of the senior figures involved, including Ligachev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, as well as on the burgeoning secondary literature. The book puts the Soviet collapse in the context of the global economic changes from the 1970s to the present day, examining why the advent of Siberian oil at a time of shortage elsewhere had profound and long-term effects on the Soviet Union's raison d'etre.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This volume analyzes various aspects of the political leadership during the collapse of the Soviet Union and formation of new Russia. Comparing the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin, the book reflects upon their goals, governing style and sources of influence.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Maps
• Introduction
• Part I. Brezhnev's Containment Policy
• The Soviet Union's China Strategy
• The Sino-Soviet Conflict in Perspective
• Part II. The Road to Beijing
• Leadership Change in the USSR and Sino-Soviet Relations
• Pressures for Continuity and Change in Soviet China Policy in the Early 1980s
• From Rapprochment to Normalization
• The Gorbachev Revolution and China Policy
• Part III. Toward Sino-Russian Partnership
• Sino-Russian Relations in the Yeltsin Era
• Moscow and Border Regions Debate Russia's China Policy
• Conclusions
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"Mending Fences" illuminates the forces driving Moscow's China policy, from the Ussuri River clashes in 1969 to the 'strategic partnership' of the 1990s. Elizabeth Wishnick, noted expert on the Russia and China, analyzes the efforts of Soviet leaders simultaneously to maintain their supremacy in the international communist movement, defend their borders from a perceived China threat, and insure the compliance of regional authorities in enforcing China policy.In the post-Soviet era, as many Russians became disenchanted with Western models of market-democracy and with their country's sharply curtailed role in international affairs, the Yeltsin administration touted a growing 'strategic partnership' with China. Wishnick outlines the successes of Russian-Chinese co-operation and analyzes the main barriers to full-scale partnership, including historical grievances, limited economic ties, tensions in regional relations. Despite ongoing efforts by Russian and Chinese leaders to resolve these issues, she concludes that the future of the Sino-Russian partnership will depend on an unpredictable interplay of forces of domestic and international change." Mending Fences" is the result of a decade of research in Moscow, Beijing, and the regions along the Russo-Chinese border. Fluent in Russian and Chinese, the author has drawn on recently declassified documents from the archives of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the KGB, and the Khabarovsk Regional Communist Party; numerous interviews with influential Russian and Chinese officials and scholars; and regional and national periodicals and books from both Russia and China. The first work in recent years to analyze Russian-Chinese relations from Moscow's perspective, "Mending Fences" is a necessary addition to the literature on the late Cold-War era and the strategic triangle between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface. Book guide. Note on transliteration. PART I: THE MAKING OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
• 1. Introduction. Transforming Russia.
• 2. Gorbachev and Reconstruction: Reforming the Unreformable?
• 3. Russia and the Russians. PART II: THE MAKING OF THE RUSSIAN STATE.
• 4. President and Parliament.
• 5. The Russian Federation.
• 6. The Judiciary and Human Rights.
• 7. The State in Uniform. PART III: THE MAKING OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY.
• 8. The People Speak.
• 9. The Mass Media. PART IV: REFORMING RUSSIA.
• 10. From Superpower to Great Power: Russia and the World.
• 11. Reforming the Economy.
• 12. Society and Social Policy.
• 13. Conclusions. APPENDICES.
• 1. The Dynamics of State Duma Elections 1993
• -1999.
• 2. The State Duma.
• 3. The Federal Organs of Executive Power of the RF.
• 4. The Presidential Administration of the RF. Constitution. Chronology. Glossary of acronyms and terms. Biographies. Bibliography. Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Essential text for a 1st term/semester undergraduate course on Russian Politics (usually 1st or 2nd year). This lively, authoritative and contemporary introduction to Russia looks at both the politics and society of one of the world's most fascinating countries.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface Acknowledgments
• 1. The Revolutionary Transition from Communism to Democracy: A Model
• PART 1. THE GORBACHEV ERA, 1985-1991 2. Gorbachev's Design for Reforming Soviet Political Institutions 3. The End of the Soviet Union
• PART 2. THE FIRST RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, 1991-1993 4. Institutional Design in the First Russian Republic 5. The Failure of the First Russian Republic
• PART 3. THE EMERGENCE OF THE SECOND RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, 1993-1996 6. Designing the Political Institutions of the Second Republic 7. Transitional Constitutionalism 8. Transitional Electoralism
• PART IV. THE FUTURE OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY 9. The Quality of Russian Democracy 10. The Stability of Partial Democracy
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

For centuries, dictators ruled Russia. Tsars and Communist Party chiefs were in charge for so long some analysts claimed Russians had a cultural predisposition for authoritarian leaders. Yet, as a result of reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, new political institutions have emerged that now require election of political leaders and rule by constitutional procedures. Michael McFaul-described by the New York Times as "one of the leading Russia experts in the United States"-traces Russia's tumultuous political history from Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985 through the 1999 resignation of Boris Yeltsin in favor of Vladimir Putin. McFaul divides his account of the post-Soviet country into three periods: the Gorbachev era (1985-1991), the First Russian Republic (1991-1993), and the Second Russian Republic (1993-present). The first two were, he believes, failures-failed institutional emergence or failed transitions to democracy. By contrast, new democratic institutions did emerge in the third era, though not the institutions of a liberal democracy. McFaul contends that any explanation for Russia's successes in shifting to democracy must also account for its failures. The Russian/Soviet case, he says, reveals the importance of forging social pacts; the efforts of Russian elites to form alliances failed, leading to two violent confrontations and a protracted transition from communism to democracy. McFaul spent a great deal of time in Moscow in the 1990s and witnessed firsthand many of the events he describes. This experience, combined with frequent visits since and unparalleled access to senior Russian policymakers and politicians, has resulted in an astonishingly well-informed account. Russia's Unfinished Revolution is a comprehensive history of Russia during this crucial period.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"Above and Beyond" discusses the inner workings of the USSR military. Morozov provides behind-the-scenes insights on Yeltsin, Kuchma, Dudaev, and other important players still active in the 1990s. In September 1991 Major General Kostiantyn Morozov informed the Soviet Armed Forces Command that he was no longer a Soviet general, but the new Ukrainian Minister of Defense. He then set out to create the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF), mounting a campaign to remove from Ukraine military personnel who were not Ukrainian citizens and not loyal to the new Ukrainian state, taking over the Ukrainian-based assets, nuclear and otherwise, of the Soviet Army, and firmly grounding the idea of an independent UAF in the public mind. Within a year of assuming his post, he was overseeing the second-largest army in Europe and the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. He had done what Hitler had tried, but had been unable to do: he destroyed the Soviet Armed Forces - without a single drop of blood being shed. The shock waves of his efforts would eventually lead Vladimir Zhirinovsky to put Morozov at the top of his "hit list" of those responsible for destroying the USSR. Morozov guided his forces through a minefield of intrigues as various figures sought to undermine the UAF and subordinate it to the armed forces of the CIS and, therefore, to Russia. He stood as an important figure in the political landscape for his blunt candour and devotion to Ukrainian sovereignty. This was especially remarkable because Morozov was ethnically half-Russian (or so he thought), spoke no Ukrainian, and came from the eastern part of the Ukraine, long believed to be faithful to Russia and Soviet rule.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

An analysis of Russia and Japan's strained relations from the end of the Cold War to the late 20th century. Among the themes are the linkage of political and economic issues and comparisons with two notable success stories: the improvement of German-Russian and Sino-Russian relations.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Drawing on his own diary, as well as secret documents and transcripts of high-level meetings, Anatoly Chernyaev recounts the drama that swept the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991. As Gorbachev's chief foreign policy aide for most of that period, he played a central role in efforts to halt the arms race, discard a confrontational ideology, and open his country to the world. As Gorbachev's confidant on many domestic issues as well, Chernyaev offers insights into the struggle over glasnost, the growth of separatism, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin. While admiring of perestroika's founder, Chernyaev is frank in faulting Gorbachev for his hesitancy in economic reforms, for his delay in decentralizing Union-republic ties, and above all for his misplaced faith in the reformability of the Communist Party.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Russian Nationalists in Soviet Politics
• 2. The Emergence of Politics by Culture, 1953-1964
• 3. The First Phase of Inclusionary Politics, 1965-1970
• 4. The Rise and Fall of Inclusionary Politics, 1971-1985
• 5. What Went Wrong with the Politics of Inclusion?
• 6. What Is Russia, and Where Should It Go? Political Debates, 1971-1985
• 7. The Zenith of Politics by Culture, 1985-1989
• 8. The Demise of Politics by Culture, 1989-1991 Epilogue: Russian Nationalism in Postcommunist Russia Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

What caused the emergence of nationalist movements in many post-communist states? What role did communist regimes play in fostering these movements? Why have some been more successful than others? To address these questions, Yitzhak Brudny traces the Russian nationalist movement from its origins within the Russian intellectual elite of the 1950s to its institutionalization in electoral alliances, parliamentary factions, and political movements of the early 1990s. Brudny argues that the rise of the Russian nationalist movement was a combined result of the reinvention of Russian national identity by a group of intellectuals, and the Communist Party's active support of this reinvention in order to gain greater political legitimacy. The author meticulously reconstructs the development of the Russian nationalist thought from Khrushchev to Yeltsin, as well as the nature of the Communist Party response to Russian nationalist ideas. Through analysis of major Russian literary, political, and historical writings, the recently-published memoirs of the Russian nationalist intellectuals and Communist Party officials, and documents discovered in the Communist Party archives, Brudny sheds new light on social, intellectual, and political origins of Russian nationalism, and emphasizes the importance of ideas in explaining the fate of the Russian nationalist movement during late communist and early post-communist periods.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface: An Intellectual History
• The Origins and Nature of Old Thinking
• Leaders, Society, and Intellectuals During the Thaw
• Intellectuals and the World: From the Secret Speech to the Prague Spring
• The Dynamics of New Thinking in the Era of Stagnation
• Advance and Retreat: New Thinking in the Time of Crisis and Transition
• The New Thinking Comes to Power
• Conclusion: Reflections on the Origins and Fate of New Thinking.

An intriguing "intellectual portrait" of a generation of Soviet reformers, this book is also a fascinating case study of how ideas can change the course of history. In most analyses of the Cold War's end the ideological aspects of Gorbachev's "new thinking" are treated largely as incidental to the broader considerations of power -- as gloss on what was essentially a retreat forced by crisis and decline. Robert English makes a major contribution by demonstrating that Gorbachev's foreign policy was in fact the result of an intellectual revolution. English analyzes the rise of a liberal policy-academic elite and its impact on the Cold War's end. English worked in the archives of the USSR Foreign Ministry and also gained access to the restricted collections of leading foreign-policy institutes. He also conducted nearly 400 interviews with Soviet intellectuals and policy makers -- from Khrushchev- and Brezhnev-era Politburo members to Perestroika-era notables such as Eduard Shevardnadze and Gorbachev himself. English traces the rise of a "Westernizing" worldview from the post-Stalin years, through a group of liberals in the late1960s--70s, to a circle of close advisers who spurred Gorbachev's most radical reforms.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface: An Intellectual History Introduction: Intellectuals, Ideas, and Identity in the Sources of International Change
• 1. The Origins and Nature of Old Thinking
• 2. Leaders, Society, and Intellectuals During the Thaw
• 3. Intellectuals and the World: From the Secret Speech to the Prague Spring
• 4. The Dynamics of New Thinking in the Era of Stagnation
• 5. Advance and Retreat: New Thinking in the Time of Crisis and Transition
• 6. The New Thinking Comes to Power Conclusion: Reflections on the Origins and Fate of New Thinking Notes Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

An intriguing "intellectual portrait" of a generation of Soviet reformers, this book is also a fascinating case study of how ideas can change the course of history. In most analyses of the Cold War's end the ideological aspects of Gorbachev's "new thinking" are treated largely as incidental to the broader considerations of power -- as gloss on what was essentially a retreat forced by crisis and decline. Robert English makes a major contribution by demonstrating that Gorbachev's foreign policy was in fact the result of an intellectual revolution. English analyzes the rise of a liberal policy-academic elite and its impact on the Cold War's end. English worked in the archives of the USSR Foreign Ministry and also gained access to the restricted collections of leading foreign-policy institutes. He also conducted nearly 400 interviews with Soviet intellectuals and policy makers -- from Khrushchev- and Brezhnev-era Politburo members to Perestroika-era notables such as Eduard Shevardnadze and Gorbachev himself. English traces the rise of a "Westernizing" worldview from the post-Stalin years, through a group of liberals in the late1960s--70s, to a circle of close advisers who spurred Gorbachev's most radical reforms.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)