Status Updates From Postwar: A History of Europ...

“No other territorial empire in recorded history ever abandoned its dominions so rapidly, with such good grace and so little bloodshed. Gorbachev cannot take direct credit for what happened in 1989—he did not plan it and only hazily grasped its long-term import. But he was
the permissive and precipitating cause. It was Mr Gorbachev's revolution.”