The most comprehensive and revealing investigation of Stalinism and political developments in the Soviet Union from 1922-1953, this edition is an extensively revised and expanded version of a classic work. The internationally known historian Roy Medvedev has included more than one-hundred new interviews, unpublished memoirs, and archives from survivors of Stalin's death camps. This updated version of a classic work was written during a time of great change in the Soviet Union. With the advent of perestroika and glasnost, more progressive leadership has sought to demolish the...

Roy Medvedev, one of the world's best-known Russian scholars and a former consultant to both Gorbachev and Yeltsin analyzes the main events that have transpired in the Russian federation since late August 1991. He looks at the plans that were meant to restructure a society in crisis but--for reasons both complex and obvious--were destined to fail. From the drastic liberalization of prices and "shock therapy" to the privatization of state owned property and Yeltsin's resignation and replacement by Vladimir Putin, this is an intricately fascinating saga of good intentions, philosophical...

Roy Medvedev, one of the world's best-known Russian scholars and a former consultant to both Gorbachev and Yeltsin analyzes the main events that have transpired in the Russian federation since late August 1991. He looks at the plans that were meant to restructure a society in crisis but--for reasons both complex and obvious--were destined to fail. From the drastic liberalization of prices and "shock therapy" to the privatization of state owned property and Yeltsin's resignation and replacement by Vladimir Putin, this is an intricately fascinating saga of good intentions, philosophical...

Roy Medvedev demonstrates, in engrossing and sharp detail, how the vast gulf between Marxist-Leninist principles and official Soviet attitudes and procedures turned vital theory into hollow dogma. Focusing on the rigidities of official ideology, he makes brilliantly clear the ways in which an excessively centralized and cumbersome bureaucratic structure was disastrous for the economic, intellectual, and moral development of Soviet society--keeping it dangerously insular in an era of increasing internationalism.

From the position he held prior to Stalin's death, he seemed to be an unlikely leader. However, Khrushchev quickly gained control and popularity attaining the leadership status. Much of the support Khrushchev gained was due the agricultural success he initiated under Stalin and his condemnation of Stalin's brutal leadership after Stalin's death.

While Khrushchev achieved positive things for the Soviet Union, the economic, specifically agricultural failures he experienced as leader haunt his reputation. This book focuses on Khrushchev's those agricultural decisions with little mention being...

Nikolai Bukharin was one of the most eminent leaders and theoreticians of the Bolsheviks, a man who had become famous long before the Russian Revolution. He was idolized by the youth of Soviet Russia, who identified with him and drew much of their inspiration from his writings. Prominent among the organizers of the revolution, he served for twenty years on the Central Committee and for ten years as a member of the Politburo. From 1917 to 1929 he was in charge of the newspaper Pravda, and though he and Lenin often disagreed, Lenin referred to him in his Testament as deservedly the favorite of...