Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 by Stephen Kotkin ISBN: 0192802453 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67
Rating: 2
Summary: Badly Flawed Due to the Author's Political Biases
Comment: This book's utility is far less than apparent due to its almost complete focus on internal reasons for the USSR's collapse. Bluntly, Mr. Kotkin doesn't admit that American policy had anything to do with it. It is fair to compare Armageddon Averted to a coroner's report that a subject, with an obvious bullet wound to the heart, died of heart failure while entirely omitting any mention of the wound. Maybe the latter wasn't responsible for the subject's death, but a complete failure to mention the bullet wound renders the report's credibility suspect.
Which is too bad here as Mr. Klotkin does an otherwise excellent job of presenting many complicated themes, with supporting evidence, in a readable and even entertaining fashion. I learned much from it. Armageddon Averted will be an excellent source for later works on the subject by more objective writers. Other readers should avoid it unless they are familiar enough with the subject to compensate for Mr. Kotkin's biases.
Rating: 4
Summary: Ignores foreign impact
Comment: The author provides a rare and insightful look into the unsavoury world of the Soviet political/robber class, but I believe he overstates their impact.
An economy as fully mobilized as that of the USSR was far more resilient to skimming than most people realize (what people don't take into account when they hear that some huge sum was stolen, is that that money is subsequently spent, thus returning to the economy. The only net loss is therefore the money they 1)Smuggle out of the country or 2)Don't spend. The autocratic government made the former difficult, and poverty made the second impractical).
Very important to the collapse were the rise of the Solidarity movement (and the support it enjoyed abroad), and the expense of maintaining a huge military, intelligence complex and the lofty space program.
The failure of the USSR to move against the increasing gall of the upstart democratic movements in the central European satellite states, the lack of decisive political leadership and the increased tolerance of political dissent. This led to a weakening of the republic, but more importantly, the people's fear of the state evaporated. As the grip over the population loosened, harsh reality came to bear and the system collapsed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Insightful View into the Twilight Time of the Soviet Empire
Comment: In a relatively short book, Stephen Kotkin brilliantly brings to light the economic and socio-political factors that led to the death of the Soviet Union, and how, unlike the violent demise of the former Yugoslavia, Gorbachev and other progressives in the Soviet government managed to turn the possible apocalyptic death of the Soviet experiment into a relatively peaceful half-transition to a market economy. Kotkin also explores how that transition crippled the pseudo-prosperity of the Soviet republics(though he focues primarily on the Russian SSR and the East European neo-states, with only moderate mentioning of the effects of the collapse to the Soviet Socialist Republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus).
Professor Kotkin also exposes in an eye-opening view the failures of Perestroika(Gorbachevian Soviet Reform) and Glasnost(openness), and how Gorbachev attempted to steer the USSR's reform policies to reflect the true ideas of enlightened socialism. In addition, his description of the extent of corruption in post-Soviet Russia also makes you see how ineffective Russia's economic system really is.
The book is a definitive description of the twilight time of the USSR, and is a must-read for those who wish to expand their knowledge of Soviet-era market reforms, and also for anyone who is outright curious about Soviet-era economic and political history.
 |
Title: Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin by Michael McFaul ISBN: 0801488141 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: The Oligarchs: Wealth & Power in the New Russia by David E. Hoffman, David Hoffman ISBN: 1586480014 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 19 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
 |
Title: Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes ISBN: 0805057838 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 21 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
 |
Title: Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev by Vladislav Zubok, Constantine V. Pleshakov ISBN: 0674455320 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman ISBN: 0393051447 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
