Why Communism Did Not Collapse

Why Communism Did Not Collapse PDF Author: Martin K. Dimitrov
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107035538
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
Addresses the durability of communist autocracies in Eastern Europe and Asia, the longest-lasting type of non-democratic regime to emerge after World War I.

Why Communism Did Not Collapse

Why Communism Did Not Collapse PDF Author: Martin K. Dimitrov
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107035538
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
Addresses the durability of communist autocracies in Eastern Europe and Asia, the longest-lasting type of non-democratic regime to emerge after World War I.

Collapse

Collapse PDF Author: Vladislav M. Zubok
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300262442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
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 with 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.

The Collapse of Communism

The Collapse of Communism PDF Author: Lee Edwards
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 0817998160
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Experts continue to debate one of the most important political questions of the twentieth century—why did Communism collapse so suddenly? These essays suggest that a wide range of forces—political, economic, strategic, religious, add the indispensable role of the principled statesman and the brave dissident—brought about the collapse of communism.

After the Collapse of Communism

After the Collapse of Communism PDF Author: Michael McFaul
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521834841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
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Years of Russia, the USSR and the Collapse of Soviet Communism

Years of Russia, the USSR and the Collapse of Soviet Communism PDF Author: David Evans
Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
This title is a new edition of 'Years of Russia and the USSR', which charts Russian history from the reign of Alexander II through to the eventual fall of communism and the break up of the Soviet Union. It examines the political, social and economic impact of Nicholas II's reign, the First World War and the subsequent revolution. It then goes on to look at Bolshevik and Stalinist Russia before going on to discuss Khrushchev's policy of de- Stalinisation and the years of stagnation and reform.

A Concise History of the Modern World

A Concise History of the Modern World PDF Author: William Woodruff
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349122327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This book investigates the major changes in world history and world economy during the past five hundred years and explains to what extent world forces have been responsible for shaping both past and present. Its underlying theme is the struggle for power in which, since the sixteenth century, the West has prevailed. Many of the problems of the contemporary world - including terrorism - are the legacy of the period of Western domination. Until the rise of the West, and its incomparable impact on every branch of human activity, the centre of the world has been in Asia. By the nineteenth century world power was firmly in the hands of the West. America's later rise to world status was prompted by the two world wars. The most prominent of the Western nations, the US is now blamed for all the excesses of an earlier colonial age.

The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy

The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy PDF Author: Chris Miller
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469630184
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
For half a century the Soviet economy was inefficient but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China? Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.

Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union

Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union PDF Author: Roman Szporluk
Publisher: Hoover Press
ISBN: 0817995439
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description
This book chronicles the final two decades in the history of the Soviet Union and presents a story that is often lost in the standard interpretations of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Although there were numerous reasons for the collapse of communism, it did not happen—as it may have seemed to some—overnight. Indeed, says Roman Szporluk, the root causes go back even earlier than 1917. To understand why the USSR broke up the way it did, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the two most important nations of the USSR—Russia and Ukraine—during the Soviet period and before, as well as the parallel but interrelated processes of nation formation in both states. Szporluk details a number of often-overlooked factors leading to the USSR's fall: how the processes of Russian identity formation were not completed by the time of the communist takeover in 1917, the unification of Ukraine in 1939–1945, and the Soviet period failing to find a resolution of the question of Russian-Ukrainian relations. The present-day conflict in the Caucasus, he asserts, is a sign that the problems of Russian identity remain.

Armageddon Averted

Armageddon Averted PDF Author: Stephen Kotkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199743843
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
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

Communism: A Very Short Introduction

Communism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Leslie Holmes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199551545
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
The collapse of communism was one of the most defining moments of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction examines the history behind the political, economic, and social structures of communism as an ideology.