Collapse
The Fall of the Soviet Union
Vladislav M. Zubok
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Format: HardcoverPrice: $35.00
A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union—showing how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms led to its demise
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.
Vladislav M. Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of A Failed Empire, Zhivago’s Children, and The Idea of Russia.
“As lucid as it is even-handed, this book will become the new standard for anyone seeking to make sense of the chaos, optimism and foolishness that led to the end of Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts at reform and the downfall of the Soviet Union.”—Dr Mark Galeotti, author of A Short History of Russia
“Vladislav Zubok observed the Soviet collapse for himself. He now retells the story with meticulous originality, using much new material, and convincingly deconstructs many simplistic preconceptions of how it all happened.”—Sir Rodric Braithwaite, author of Moscow 1941: A City & Its People at War
“A drama of epic proportions, the Soviet collapse never looked so contingent on human courage and follies, accidents and missed opportunities, as in this book … The best narrative of the Soviet Union’s end we have so far.”—Vladimir Pechatnov, co-editor of The Kremlin Letters
“This is a deeply researched indictment of Mikhail Gorbachev’s timidity and mercurial policies that backfired. Zubok invokes George Kennan’s hope at the dawn of the Cold War that the USSR would experience “gradual mellowing.” Instead, Russia at the turn of the 21st century was ripe for the rise of Putin.”—Strobe Talbott, Former US Deputy Secretary of State and author of The Great Experiment
Publication Date: November 30, 2021
30 b/w illus. + 2 maps
