Drawing on a wide range of post-Soviet materials, Christopher Read examines the reasons for the successes and failures of the Soviet system. He argues that the underlying reasons for the system's collapse can be found in the contradictions of the revolution which gave birth to it. The consequences are traced from Stalin to Gorbachev's doomed attempt to transform the Soviet system. Particular attention is given to the divergence between the aspirations of the leadership and the social evolution of ordinary Russians.
Drawing on a wide range of post-Soviet materials, Christopher Read examines the reasons for the successes and failures of the Soviet system. He argues...
Christopher Read takes students through the history of the Stalin years, covering the key points of his rule from the late 1920s to the post-war years, using post-Soviet articles which provide more balanced and scholarly assessments of the leader's time in power. Taken together with Read's own contributions, which include an up-to-date historiographic survey, they constitute a complex and dynamic history of the central features of a terrible era.
Christopher Read takes students through the history of the Stalin years, covering the key points of his rule from the late 1920s to the post-war years...
From a highly distinguished author on the subject, this biography is an excellent scholarly introduction to one of the key figures of the Russian Revolution and post-Tsarist Russia. Not only does it make use of archive material made newly available in the glasnost and post-Soviet eras, it re-examines traditional sources as well, providing an original interpretation of Lenin's life and historical importance.
Focal points of this study are:
Lenin's revolutionary ascetic personality
how he exploited culture, education and propaganda
his relationship to...
From a highly distinguished author on the subject, this biography is an excellent scholarly introduction to one of the key figures of the Russian R...
