{"product_id":"the-soviet-experiment-russia-the-ussr-and-the-successor-states-9780195081046","title":"The Soviet Experiment: Russia  The USSR  and the Successor States","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe West has always had difficulty understanding the Soviet Union. For decades  analyses of Americas Cold War foe were clouded by ideological passions and a shear dearth of information. Then came the flood of dramatic revelations under glasnost  followed by the sudden  shocking collapse of the Communist empire. Today  with the stunning secrets of newly opened archives and the excitement of political revolution still fresh in our minds  and we can look back at this remarkable nation and see it whole  see Soviet history as a story with a beginning  a middle  and an end. In The Soviet Experiment  Ronald Grigor Suny does just that  in a landmark work that gives us the fullest account yet of the most remarkable story of our century. With a clear-eyed mastery of the historical issues and literature  Suny combines gripping detail with insightful analysis in a narrative that propels the reader from the last tsar of the Russian empire to the first president of the Russian republic. He focuses in particular on four revolutions  each identified with a single individual: the tumultuous year of 1917  when Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik takeover of the tsarist empire; the 1930s  when Joseph Stalin refashioned the economy  the society  and the state; Mikhail Gorbachevs ambitious  and catastrophic  attempt at sweeping reform and revitalization; and the breakup of the Soviet Union led by Boris Yeltsin. Never have we had a more complete  nuanced  and crystal-clear examination of the complex themes running through Soviet history. Suny confidently moves from party debates and personal rivalries  to centuries-old ethnic tensions  to vast economic and social developments. He unravels tangled issues with ease  explaining \"deeply contradictory\" policies toward the various Soviet nationalities; Moscows ambivalence over its own New Economic Policy of the 1920s; and the attempts at reform that followed Stalins death. Sunys treatment of the Soviet break-up warrants particular attention  as he details precisely how Gorbachevs program unleashed forces that had built up during the previous decades--particularly the nationalism that had been shaped  ironically  by the Soviet structure of ethnically defined republics. Along the way  he offers a fresh telling of familiar as well as little-known events--capturing  for example  the movement of the crowds on the streets of St. Petersburg in the February revolution; Stalins collapse into a near-catatonic state after Hitlers much-predicted invasion; or Yeltsins political maneuvering and public grandstanding as he pushed the disintegration of the Soviet Union  and then faced down his rivals. The Soviet Experiment provides a rich  multilayered  seamlessly woven account of one of the great forces of modern history. With dispassionate insight and human detail  Suny has constructed a masterful work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665950302261,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195081048","price":143.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195081046.jpg?v=1782414822","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-soviet-experiment-russia-the-ussr-and-the-successor-states-9780195081046","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}