How was it that after seventy years of communist dictatorship, political life returned to Russia? This book addresses that question by focusing on the individuals, groups and movements that brought this about, their struggles against the Soviet regime, and the ways in which these struggles shaped Russia's political rebirth. As well as offering an original theory of Soviet society, the book is richly informed by the observations and interpretations of participants and close observers, and traces the process through the communist past and the revolution of 1991, to the political system of...