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4.8 ★★★★★
Based on 12 reviews
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★★★★★ 5
P O W E R F U L .
Format: Paperback
The author summarized: "The ghost of the disappeared Soviet Union ... still haunts the imagination of contemporaries .... This amazing story teaches us not to trust in the seeming certainty of continuity and should help us prepare for sudden shocks in the future" (p. 439).
An engrossing in-depth eloquent analyses concerning the events and individuals affecting the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union. Moreover, the unforeseen Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, crystallized the horrors of a possible nuclear war. Thus, a new orientation to end the exorbitant arms race with the United States.
Further, General Secretary Gorbachev promulgated new reforms, including, relaxing travel restrictions in 1989: "... [T]he shock that thousands of Soviet people experienced when they crossed Soviet borders and visited Western countries .... For first-time Soviet travelers to the West a visit to a supermarket produced the biggest effect. The contrast between half-empty, gloomy Soviet food stores and glittering Western palaces with an abundant selection of food was mind-boggling.... This experience changed Soviet travelers forever" (p. 82).
At times, repetitive and somewhat confusing. For instance, U.S. President Bush needed Gorbachev's approval for his Iraq offense, which was initially described on Page 143, then inexplicably again, on Page 172. On another occasion, the author indicated that Yeltsin was influenced by Alexander Solzhenitsyn's brochure "How To Rebuild Russia," on Page 150, which is again repeated, on Page 173. Scrupulous editing needed.
Notwithstanding such glitches, nonetheless, a fascinating detailed portrayal of the unexpected implosion of a superpower. Having read other books on the subject, if I had to select only ONE about the USSR collapse, I would choose this as the best.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Thought Provoking
Format: Kindle
I bought this book after I heard the author on a podcast. Growing up in the US we have been inundated with the story that the collapse of the Soviet Union was an inevitable triumph of liberal, Western values. I had my doubts. Even poorly run dictatorships can muddle along for years. What the author did was center Gorbachev in the story. He was the eye of the storm. It was the terrible combination of Gorbachev’s ambitious idealism and gross ineptitude that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Unlike much of Marxist historical narratives which emphasize the forces of history; the author shows that it’s individuals who shape events and are shaped by them. A different person than Gorbachev could have turned the tide in a different direction and left us a different world than we have today. This is a history book that teaches lessons not just about the Soviet Union but about human history in general.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2025
★★★★★ 5
A compelling account of the fall of the USSR
Format: Kindle
Zubok describes blow by blow the series of decisions that sent the USSR towards disaster. Gorbachev, widely hated in Russia, comes across as principled but indecisive, ignorant of economics, and incapable of translating his worship of Lenin into coherent action. The book reads like a thriller despite the density of facts. Zubok is a pessimist, but his thesis is convincing.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Fascinating, an against the grain account of the perestroika era
Format: Kindle
Gorbachev is hailed as a hero in the West but the book tells the story of a meek, naive individual that precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union creating suffering and an a!most unprecedented calamity.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2025
★★★★★ 2
A masterfully falsified history of the late Soviet developments
Format: Paperback
This book represents academic propaganda, providing some interesting insights into important events. Some details are true, but some crucial details are omitted. It represents a sanitized version of Russia's modern history. It provides misleading information about Gorbachev's constitutional reforms, aimed at partitioning of 15 republics into 53 confederation entities. Originally, the targeted republics were Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, etc. Those conflicts were manufactured by the Soviet center to discredit "nationalists," facilitate the partition of national republics, and grant Moscow right to protect ethnic minorities. According to Starovoitova, Bakatin, Yakovlev, and a few other primary sources, the Soviet security services led special operations in the Caucasus and Central Asia to provoke those conflicts. Zubok avoids citing those parts. Using the imperial approach of "divide and rule," Moscow attempted to become a peacekeeper in the conflicts it created between different ethnicity.
In addition to fragmenting the republics with well-developed national identities, Gorbachev's new constitution would revoke their right to leave the USSR, written in Lenin's 1922 Constitution (Shakhnazarov, 1992). Zubok does not explain any of it. His book is an effort to protect the truth and conceal facts with Russian myths and lies about nationalism (also referred to as Nazism). Notably, Zubok does not recognize non-Russian republics and describes them as "territories." He mentions Pitsunda as a resort on the Black Sea, not as Georgia. For lying about the genocidal ethnic cleansing conducted by the Russian military against the Georgian population of Abkhazia, Zubok owes apology to the victims of conflicts and wars initiated by Gorbachev and carried on by Yeltsin.
The story about "the hardliners coup against Gorbachev" is also a big fat lie. American scholars, Amy Knight, John Dunlop, and William Odom provide more accurate insights. For Russian sources, read Marshal Shaposhnikov or Aleksandr Lebed's memoirs (1995) and listen to Gennady Yanaev's interview (2009). According to Mitrokhin archives (original), the August 1991 coup was an active measure the KGB developed per Gorbachev's request. The so-called coup was part of Gorbachev's constitutional reform, which would lead to the removal of unfriendly leaders (including Yeltsin) from the republics. It failed because the Soviet military brass, foremost Pavel Grachev, had defected to Yeltsin earlier in 1991. When you read a book by a seasoned Russian propagandist, like Zubok or Trenin, take it with a grain of salt, because it will always contain a mix of lies and truth.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2023