The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union

by Richard Sakwa

Through sources and documents, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union by Richard Sakwa places the Soviet experience in historical and comparative context. The author introduces each source in this volume fully and provides commentary and analysis.
Using eye-witness accounts, official documents and new materials which have just come to light, Richard Sakwa gives an historical overview of the Soviet Union from the revolution of 1906 to the fall of the regime.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Politics, Soviet Union

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Richard Sakwa (born 1953) is Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent. He writes books about Russian and Eastern European communist and post-communist politics.

Sakwa is currently Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent. From 2001 to 2007 he was also the head of the University's Politics and International Relations department. He has published on Soviet, Russian and post-communist affairs, and has written and edited several books and articles on the subject.

Sakwa was also a participant of Valdai Discussion Club, an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute of Law and Public Policy in Moscow and a member of Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.

Reviews

[Llewellyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential Kremlinology. Mainly a collection of speech transcriptions and party doctrine, and I'm not sure if it's the best history, but it is history in their own words. Fascinating stuff to watch a party of arrogant intellectuals take power. Such detailed strategic maneuvering. You can sort of see where it's going wrong from the beginning, but still an interesting read.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book.

At first it was difficult to get into, as the book is mainly a collection of documents and speeches with a little bit of commentary from the author either to prepare you for an understanding of the document, or to help the reader comprehend what they just read.

I feel this book should be a requirement in high school and not just university courses about the Soviet Union. As this would eliminate a lot of the mythology surrounding communism and socialism.

These documents makes it clear that the leaders of the Soviet Union Communist party had zero interest in actually becoming a socialists state, especially in the context of what Engels and Marx wrote in their manifesto. Stalin clearly believed in the separation of classes, especially once he got use to power and money. While Krushchev did show some sort of desire to make an equal state of socialism with the goal towards Marx & Engels’ vision of communism, he was quickly overthrown and replaced with Brezhnev’s desire to be a Stalin 2.0.

While Andropov gave a bit of effort to turn the system around, unfortunately his time on this planet ended quickly into his position of Presidium of USSR.

Gorbachev finally started trying to make the USSR into a true socialist nation, but for Yeltsin it was too slow, and when he tried to give Russia more independence, it triggered Gorbachev to move quicker, resulting in a coup attempt by older members of the Soviet Communist Party that didn’t want to give up their power and riches.

This book truly shows how much propaganda still gets spread about USSR, 25 years after being published.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was assigned reading for my History of the Soviet Union course in college. At first glance it seemed boring and not nearly in-depth enough. But after reading the first few chapters and understanding the structure of the book, it is amazing. It tells the story of the communist rise and fall in Russia through the speeches and published writings of its leaders. Great book, easily readable, and expertly constructed. A great piece of material for a collegiate course.

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was so cool and it would be so interesting to read every document in this book, but I had a deadline so I ended up with the headings. Good thing I already had a good overview, because it seemed like the author assumed a decent amount of knowledge about things already, and I think there were some skips with too little explanation.

[Michael Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great supplement to the narrative of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, its strength is its being a collection of the most important documents about the Soviet Union, from its pre-founding years to its disintegration on December 31, 1991. A rich source of primary material.

[Jason Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A primer of primary sources which provide a unique and vivid retelling of eight decades of Soviet history.

I will mark this first among the books which I retained and continue to revisit well after finishing the class for which they were bought.

[PGR]

not the exact book that I read