A failed empire : the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev

Author(s)

• Zubok, V. M. (Vladislav Martinovich)

Bibliographic Information

A failed empire : the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev

Vladislav M. Zubok

（The new Cold War history）

The University of North Carolina Press, c2007

• : cloth
• : paper

Note

"Parts of this book have been reprinted with permission in revised form from Vladislav M. Zubok, "The Nuclear education of Nikita Khrushchev," in Cold war statesmen confront the Bomb: nuclear diplomacy since 1945, edited by John Lewis Gaddis et al. (New York: Oxford University press, 1999), and "Gorbachev and the end of the Cold war: different perspectives on the historical personality," in Cold war endgame: oral history, analysis, debates, edited by William C. Wohlforth (University Park: Pennsylvania State university press, 2003)"--T.p. verso

Bibliography: p. [417]-453

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9780807830987

Description

Western interpretations of the Cold War - both realist and neoconservative - have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the twentieth century. Using recently declassified Politburo records, ciphered telegrams, diaries, and taped conversations, among other sources, Zubok explores the origins of the superpowers' confrontation under Stalin, Khrushchev's contradictory and counter-productive attempts to ease tensions, the surprising story of Brezhnev's passion for detente, and Gorbachev's destruction of the Soviet superpower as the by-product of his hasty steps to end the Cold War and to reform the Soviet Union. The first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side, "A Failed Empire" provides a history different from those written by the Western victors.

Volume

: paper ISBN 9780807859582

Description

This book features the Cold War from the Soviet side. In this widely praised book, Vladislav Zubok argues that Western interpretations of the Cold War have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers the first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side. ""A Failed Empire"" provides a history quite different from those written by the Western victors. In a new preface for this edition, the author adds to our understanding of today's events in Russia, including who the new players are and how their policies will affect the state of the world in the twenty-first century.

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BA84470124
• ISBN:
  • 9780807830987
  • 9780807859582
• LCCN: 2007011439
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Chapel Hill
• Pages/Volumes: xvi, 467 p.
• Size: 25 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : DK274
  • DC22 : 947.085
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1953-1985
  • LCSH : Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1985-1991
  • LCSH : Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1991
  • LCSH : Cold War
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA38748446