Vladislav M. Zubok is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of A Failed Empire, Zhivago’s Children, and The Idea of Russia. He is a finalist for the 2022 Cundill History Prize.
“A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell
apart.”—Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times
“A compelling account. . . . [A] masterly analysis.”—Joshua
Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal
“An excellent study. . . . There have been several books over the
past quarter century that have covered this territory. Zubok’s is
the most comprehensive, detailed and original.”—Victor Sebestyen,
Sunday Times
“This new take on the unexpected collapse of the Soviet empire, by
an eminent Soviet-born historian, zooms in on the economic failings
and pressures that drove the collapse. . . . Zubok depicts a
fateful coalition of idealists, grifters, and thugs that ended up
shaping the disastrous 1990s.”—James Palmer, Foreign Policy
“Thoroughly and deeply researched and emotionally engaging for the
reader, it is difficult to envisage how there could be a better
book on the subject.”—Geoffrey Roberts, Irish Times
“[A] remarkably reliable narrative, effectively covering two years,
1990 and 1991. [Zubok’s] exactitude punctures many a myth,
especially on the economy, as he sifts an immense body of research
to discover, among other things, that egregious financial
mismanagement, not excessive defence outlays, proved
fatal.”—Stephen Kotkin, Times Literary Supplement
“An impressive history.”—Literary Review of Canada
“The first comprehensive political history of the Gorbachev years
to be based almost exclusively on original (mostly
Russian-language) archival sources. . . . Zubok makes the most
convincing case to date for considering seriously ‘the decisive and
implacable role of money in the Soviet demise.’”—Yana Skorobogatov,
Russian Review
“No book will likely be produced soon that matches Zubok’s in
detail, power, and depth in marshalling the evidence. This book is
a central, indispensable work on the end of the
USSR.”—Canadian-American Slavic Studies Review
“No book will likely be produced soon that matches Zubok’s in
detail, power, and depth in marshalling the evidence. This book is
a central, indispensable work on the end of the USSR.”—Bradley D.
Woodworth, Canadian-American Slavic Studies
“Skillfully written. . . . The author presents the reader with the
knowledge that was in front of the actors at the time, not with a
20/20 knowledge of the events that followed.”—Vladislav M. Zubok,
Brave New Europe
“Zubok . . . has cutting insights on the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ and
the ‘where’ and the ‘when.’”—Gabriel Gavin, Reaction
“Such a huge event in world history as the collapse of the Soviet
Union will undoubtedly be retold. When it is, Zubok’s impressive
book will have to be consulted.”—James Rodgers, History Today
“The author seems to have read practically everything currently
available, both published and unpublished, of relevance to his
subject. . . . [Zubok] writes very stylish and idiomatic English,
which makes his work a real pleasure to read.”—Martin Dewhirst,
East-West Review
“Excellent. . . . Zubok’s lengthy and detailed study is easy to
read. It is crafted with a strong narrative approach to relate an
unfolding drama. This not only keeps the reader’s attention, but
also provides a wealth of detail and analysis that can only be
undertaken by someone with Zubok’s lifetime of work on the
subject.”—William B. Whisenhunt, LSE Review of Books
“Zubok’s book is important and deserves broad attention. It
provides an excellent basis for the discussion of the collapse,
necessary to understand how it affects politics and our life in
Europe even today.”—Stephan Merl, Journal of Contemporary
History
“With its engaging style and unmatched wealth of sources, this
volume is bound to remain the work of reference for years to
come.”—Kaspar Pucek, SEER
“Collapse . . . is a work of outstanding richness and novelty. No
matter how familiar you are with the last days of the USSR there is
something in this book that you do not know.”—Neil Robinson,
Society
“The first comprehensive political history of the Gorbachev years
to be based almost exclusively on original (mostly
Russian-language) archival sources. . . . Zubok makes the most
convincing case to date for considering seriously ‘the decisive and
implacable role of money in the Soviet demise.’”—Yana Skorobogatov,
Russian Review
“Zubok has studied various sources and linked many events into a
master narrative of a steady collapse of the world’s second power
produced by its domestic forces. Collapse should be a standard text
for generations of students.”—Ivan Kurilla, Journal of Cold War
Studies
“Vladislav Zubok was a witness to the end of the Soviet Union, and
with this impressive book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union,
he has become one of, if not the, leading historians of its
downfall.”—Norman M. Naimark, H-Diplo
“Vladislav Zubok has presented the most detailed historical
analysis of the end of the Soviet Union to date.”—Tobias Rupprecht,
Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas
Finalist for the 2022 Cundill History Prize
Winner of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize, sponsored by ASEEES
“As lucid as it is even-handed, this book will become the new
standard for anyone seeking to make sense of the chaos, optimism
and foolishness that led to the end of Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempts
at reform and the downfall of the Soviet Union.”—Mark Galeotti,
author of A Short History of Russia
“A drama of epic proportions, the Soviet collapse never looked so
contingent on human courage and follies, accidents and missed
opportunities, as in this book. . . . The best narrative of the
Soviet Union’s end we have so far.”—Vladimir Pechatnov, coeditor of
The Kremlin Letters
“This is a deeply researched indictment of Mikhail Gorbachev’s
timidity and mercurial policies that backfired. Zubok invokes
George Kennan’s hope at the dawn of the Cold War that the USSR
would experience ‘gradual mellowing.’ Instead, Russia at the turn
of the twenty-first century was ripe for the rise of Putin.”—Strobe
Talbott, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and author of The
Great Experiment
“A deeply researched, gripping account of the final Soviet
unravelling: Gorbachev’s growing weakness, infighting among his
opponents, breakaways to independence by the USSR’s constituent
republics, including Russia itself, all in the face of growing
reluctance of the Bush administration and the Western alliance to
help Gorbachev salvage a democratic union.”—William Taubman,
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era,
and of Gorbachev: His Life and Times
“In this provocative, deeply-researched retelling of Mikhail
Gorbachev’s turbulent six years in the Kremlin, Zubok challenges
the conventional wisdom that the USSR was destined to collapse. He
attributes the demise to Gorbachev’s ideological messianism, his
failed reforms and repeated policy zig-zags. A must-read for those
seeking to understand how a nuclear superpower could have imploded
peacefully—and why today’s Russian leaders are so determined
to restore Russia’s great power status.”—Angela Stent,
author Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the
Rest
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