Soviet Politics 1917-1991 / Edition 1

by Mary McAuley

Overview

Now available in paperback, this timely work offers an authoritative and lively history of the entire spectrum of Soviet politics, from the rise of Lenin and the October Revolution of 1917 to the emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It discusses in fascinating detail how Lenin's Communist party transformed the Tsarist empire, why Stalin's massive program to industrialize was coupled with one of the most horrific terror campaigns in history, and what we can expect from this erstwhile superpower in the years ahead. Based on extensive research and first-hand knowledge of the Soviet system, it offers a lucid and stimulating analysis of the developments which first sustained, then finally undermined, the Soviet state, pinpointing all the key political developments—revolution, state-building, party rule, terror, Nazi invasion, the Cold War, and the recent elections—and examining their significance in an especially well-wrought historical context. Timely, cogent, and comprehensive, Soviet Politics helps readers make sense of developments in the former USSR since 1985, showing how and why the system fell apart. It will interest anyone wanting a fuller understanding of current events, and their consequences for the world as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198780670
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/12/1992
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	7.65(w) x 5.04(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Mary McAuley is a respected Sovietologist who teaches at Oxford University. She is the author of many books on the Soviet Union, most recently Bread and Justice: State and Society in Petrograd (Oxford, 1991).

Table of Contents

Introduction1. 1917: Revolution2. State Building: The Leninist System3. Industrialization, Collectivization, and the Stalinist State4. Terror5. Khrushchev and Party Rule6. The Administrative Command System Brezhnev7. iPerestroika/i and the End of Party Rule8. The Dispersal of PowerConclusion