Gorbachev (Profiles In Power)

by Martin Mc Cauley (Author)

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  Paperback
  2000

  $3.39

  GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev, himself a communist, moved towards social democracy, and in doing so dismantled the dictatorship that held Russia in a vice for over 70 years. This he achieved without civil war - in itself a huge accomplishment.This excellent introduction to Mikhail Gorbachev's rise and fall from power is written in the light of his own uniquely revealing memoirs. It provides an objective assessment of what happened - and why - during the momentous period of Soviet reform, failure and collapse.But he was less successful elsewhere:his attempted re-introduction of a market economy only sped up Russia'seconomic declinehis failure to diffuse the nationalist aspirations of Russia's peopleeventually brought him downhis hopes of creating a Union of Sovereign States collapsed in the wakeof the attempted coup against him in August1991.But how much of what he achieved did he intend, and how much of what he failed to achieve did he misjudge?Opening up the claustrophobic and intensly personal world of the Soviet leadership as another new Premier takes the reins for post soviet Russia, Martin McCauley answers these questions to provide an enthralling introduction to the rise and fall of Gorbachev. Martin McCauley is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. A leading authority on the Soviet era, he has written over 20 books, including Who's Who in Russia Since 1900 and the Longman Companion to Russia since 1914. He is also a frequent broadcaster on radio and television in Britain and the US.