Research Catalog

Title

Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power / John Miller.

Author

Miller, John, 1940 February 4-

Publication

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Macmillan Press ; New York, N.Y. : St. Martin's Press, 1993.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xviii, 267 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

In 1985 the Soviet Union was a recognised superpower and its political system, whilst looking clumsy to the outside world, also looked tenacious. Less than seven years later the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was banned, the notorious KGB broken up and the Soviet Union itself dissolved into fifteen independent states. Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power is one of the first books to explore the final years of the Soviet system and Gorbachev's attempts to save it from collapse through internal reforms. The book evaluates Gorbachev's career as Party leader and President (up to December 1991) and assesses the place of perestroika in Russian history. It also analyses features of Gorbachev that puzzled the West, in particular his relationships to communism, revolution, democracy and gradualism; to the Soviet middle classes and intelligentsia; to the Communist Party; and to the national diversity of the former Soviet empire.

Subject

• Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931-2022
• 1953-1991
• Soviet Union > Politics and government > 1985-1991
• Soviet Union > Politics and government > 1953-1985

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-253) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• 1. An Outline of the Soviet System. The Russian Heritage. The Mono-Organisational System. Features of Soviet Politics -- 2. What went Wrong under Brezhnev? The Climate of the Khruschev Regime. The Climate of the Brezhnev Regime. The Social Compact and its Decline. What was Happening to Soviet Society? -- 3. Events since Brezhnev. The Interregnum. Gorbachev's First Year: Consolidation of Power. The Glasnost' Programme. The Struggle for Reconstruction. Perestroika. Collapse -- 4. The Making of Gorbachev. Questions about a Humdrum Career. Temperament and Personality. Political Experience. Gorbachev's Rise to Power. The Impact of Office. Political Character -- 5. Objectives, Agenda, Strategy. The Initial Situation and its Implications. First Moves: Glasnost' and Informal Groups. Perestroika and its Implications. The Problem with the Party. Crash Through or Crash? --^
• 6. Glasnost' and Interest Groups. Glasnost': Mechanism and Obstacles. The Scope and Limits of Glasnost'. The Advent of Press Freedom. The New Interest Groups. Gorbachev's Social Policies -- 7. Perestroika and Political Institutions. The Nineteenth Party Conference. The Constitutional Amendments of December 1988. The General Elections of March-May 1989. The New Legislatures. The Presidency. Assessment -- 8. Gorbachev and the CPSU. The Problem. Gorbachev's Point of View. Options for the CPSU. Disestablishment. Re-equipping the Party. Two, Three or Four Parties? The End of the CPSU -- 9. Society and Politics under the Presidency. Politics Unbound. The Descent Into Autarky. The Ethnic Revival. Developments in the RSFSR. The Army in Politics. The Coalitions Form -- 10. The August Coup. Under Siege. The Turn to the Right. Vilnius. Novo-Ogarevo. 'A Sort of Traitors'. The Coup Confounded --^
• 11. The Union Treaty. The Plan for a Renewed Union. Aspirations and Options. The Shape of Negotiations. The Union Treaty. Aftermath -- 12. Reflections: Gorbachev, Communism and Reform. The Legacy of Communism. Perestroika: A Balance Sheet. Gorbachev's Achievement.

ISBN

• 0312090803
• 0333546156
• 0333591941 (pbk) :

LCCN

^^^92029615^

OCLC

• 26399420
• SCSB-12723394

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library