{"product_id":"soviet-politics-19171991-9780198780663","title":"Soviet Politics 1917-1991","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the space of mere months in 1991  the Soviet Union saw an attempted coup fail  Gorbachev leave office  the Baltic states acquire independence  Leningrad vote to rename itself St Petersburg  the Communist Party disband  and the Russian flag fly over the Kremlin. One of the worlds great powers--a country of some 200 nationalities stretching across a dozen time zones--had simply disintegrated  ending an epoch in world history. Now  for the first time  we are able to look back and assess the complete 75 year experiment with communism. Based on extensive research and a first-hand knowledge of the Soviet system  Soviet Politics: 1917-1991 offers an authoritative and lively history of the entire spectrum of Soviet politics  from the October Revolution and the rise of Lenin to the emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent States. McAuley ranges from the Revolution to the unprecedented crash industrialization and social mobility  to dictatorship and mass terror under Stalin  to conservative state control under Krushchev  Kosygin  and Brezhnev  and finally to the swift collapse of the state. The author offers a particularly stimulating analysis of the developments that brought an end to communist party rule and the breakup of the Soviet Union. She describes  for instance  how the 1989 elections undermined the Communist Partys assumption of unqualified popular support (Yeltsin  the bete noire of the Moscow party  was swept in  and Soloviev  a deputy member of the Politburo  who ran unopposed in Leningrad  failed to garner 50% of the vote). She shows how the Congress of that year  televised nationally  revealed to a wrapt nation a Party no longer solidly united behind one stand  where deputies openly criticized the government  the KGB  and the Afghan war. And she paints a striking portrait of Gorbachev trying to reconcile irreconcilable interests  to heal the rift between Democrats and Party conservatives  as the center began to unravel. By the end of 1991  the USSR was gone forever  with momentous and unpredictable consequences not only for the peoples of the former Soviet Union  but for the world as a whole. Soviet Politics helps readers make sense of the developments since 1985  showing how and why the system fell apart. It will interest anyone wanting a full understanding of current world events.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45646955249717,"sku":"ByrdShop_0198780664","price":243.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780198780663_d8386d15-323e-4fbb-b968-c2410f09d58c.jpg?v=1781683212","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/soviet-politics-19171991-9780198780663","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}