The Disintegration of the Soviet Union: A Study in the Rise and Triumph of Nationalism

by Ben Fowkes

This book tells the dramatic story of the unexpected disintegration of the Soviet Union. The author draws on a wide range of sources to illustrate the growth of national awareness among the many subject peoples, partly promoted by the actions of the communists themselves. He concludes that, the efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the state he initially controlled, undermined and eventually destroyed the mechanisms that held the non-Russians in check.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ben Fowkes was for twenty-five years Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of North London. He has carried out archival research in Vienna, Munich, Bonn, Prague and Moscow. He is the author of several works on communist and post-communist history and politics, including The Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, The Disintegration of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe from Stalinism to Stagnation and The Post-Communist Era.