Home / Humanities / History / Modern European History / Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union

Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union

AUTHOR
Price
€18.90
€20.90 -10%
Upon request
Dispatched within 15 - 25 days.

Add to wishlist

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.

Author: Zubok Vladislav
Publisher: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Pages: 576
ISBN: 9780300268171
Cover: Paperback
Edition Number: 1
Release Year: 2022

Vladislav M. Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of A Failed EmpireZhivago’s Children, and The Idea of Russia.

You may also like

Newsletter

Subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to receive our new releases and offers
Your account Your wishlist

This website uses cookies

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.