Featuring extensive revisions to the text as well as a new introduction and epilogue-bringing the book completely up to date on the tumultuous politics of the previous decade and the long-term implications of the Soviet collapse-this compact, original, and engaging book offers the definitive account of one of the great historical events of the last fifty years.
Combining historical and geopolitical analysis with an absorbing narrative, Kotkin draws upon extensive research, including memoirs by dozens of insiders and senior figures, to illuminate the factors that led to the demise of Communism and the USSR. The new edition puts the collapse in the context of the global economic and political changes from the 1970s to the present day. Kotkin creates a compelling profile of post Soviet Russia and he reminds us, with chilling immediacy, of what could not have been predicted-that the world's largest police state, with several million troops, a doomsday arsenal, and an appalling record of violence, would liquidate itself with barely a whimper. Throughout the book, Kotkin also paints vivid portraits of key personalities. Using recently released archive materials, for example, he offers a fascinating picture of Gorbachev, describing this virtuoso tactician and resolutely committed reformer as "flabbergasted by the fact that his socialist renewal was leading to the system's liquidation"-and more or less going along with it.
At once authoritative and provocative, Armageddon Averted illuminates the collapse of the Soviet Union, revealing how "principled restraint and scheming self interest brought a deadly system to meek dissolution."
2 有用 ethan 2020-03-16 04:53:16
西伯利亚油田的发现给苏联续命了20年,却也在经济上使得苏联无法向市场转型;dissolved by its own ideals and elite,戈尔巴乔夫试图借用官僚体制来改造官僚体制,却在和平中消解了该体系赖以运转的权力结构
0 有用 大盆友 2024-05-24 14:02:26 美国
本书是对1970-2000之间苏联的简要讲解。内容接近普及读物,大部分事件只有定性叙述,缺乏数据。读完之后我仍然对戈发动改革时的苏联情况不甚了解,外债到底有多严重,油价暴跌和广场协议对外债有多大冲击,外债压力是否影响了戈的决策;经济改革措施有哪些,分别有什么影响,这些比较细节的问题都没有得到比较满意的解答。
0 有用 Philetus Beta 2021-09-21 23:35:31
二十世纪最伟大的政治改革。
0 有用 KUVIET 2022-07-09 15:13:23
还要二刷
0 有用 Amos 2023-04-02 15:20:10 美国
An insightful account and analysis of the last stage of Soviet Union and the new era of Russia.
0 有用 大盆友 2024-05-24 14:02:26 美国
本书是对1970-2000之间苏联的简要讲解。内容接近普及读物,大部分事件只有定性叙述,缺乏数据。读完之后我仍然对戈发动改革时的苏联情况不甚了解,外债到底有多严重,油价暴跌和广场协议对外债有多大冲击,外债压力是否影响了戈的决策;经济改革措施有哪些,分别有什么影响,这些比较细节的问题都没有得到比较满意的解答。
1 有用 常务副momo 2023-06-03 05:28:32 美国
The Communist fable of socialism with a human face, or Gorbachev's campaign to reinvigorate the socialist system, triggered the collapse of the USSR. Gorbi本质上还是个理想主义者啊。苏联有油,但我们有港台。不少论断今日读来已不觉新鲜,但可以感觉到... The Communist fable of socialism with a human face, or Gorbachev's campaign to reinvigorate the socialist system, triggered the collapse of the USSR. Gorbi本质上还是个理想主义者啊。苏联有油,但我们有港台。不少论断今日读来已不觉新鲜,但可以感觉到出此书在当年是如何重塑关于late socialism的学术讨论。 (展开)
0 有用 Amos 2023-04-02 15:20:10 美国
An insightful account and analysis of the last stage of Soviet Union and the new era of Russia.
0 有用 Jacinthe 2023-04-02 12:52:31 北京
现在再看,是delayed而不是averted。西方学者对于autocracy还是天真了,即使是Kotkin这样的Sovietologist
0 有用 沃兰德大剧院 2023-02-02 17:31:02 广东
改革的理想终于被自己构建起的历史神话所吞噬