Synopses & Reviews
A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, the disintegration of the Soviet state, the end of the Cold War, and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev. Written by a leading authority on Soviet politics, this thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective.
Perestroika began as an attempt by a minority within the leadership of the Communist Party to reform the Soviet system. The decisive role was played by the new General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika (reconstruction) developed into an attempt to move from Communism to competitive elections and a market economy of a social democratic type. This 'revolution from above' had profound consequences, both intended and unintended. The latter included the dissolution of the Soviet state. Four of the ten chapters were written in 'real time' - in the second half of the 1980s while perestroika was still underway. The other six chapters provide an up-to-date discussion of such important issues as the stimuli to perestroika, its intellectual origins and development, its influence on other countries and their influence on developments in the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War.
Archie Brown takes issue with a number of popular interpretations of perestroika - and of the end of the Cold War - and draws on new archival sources in a book which is both clearly and vigorously argued and well documented.
Review
"Archie Brown is the dean of Gorbachev experts"--Sir Rodric Braithwaite, British Ambassador to Moscow, 1988-1992, Moscow Times
"The real genius of the end of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Archie Brown has been his closest and best commentator."--Financial Times
"The bulk of the book is a necessary reminder of what Mr. Gorbachev and perestroika achieved--even if inadvertently. For what, asks Mr. Brown, did Mr. Gorbachev sacrifice "the boundless authority, the unquestioning obedience, the orchestrated public adulation"? For freedom of speech, freedom of
religion, competitive elections and a host of other accomplishments. The author rightly concludes that the "democratic shortcomings of post--Soviet Russia notwithstanding, the country that Gorbachev bequeathed to his successors was freer than at any time in Russian history"."--The Economist
Review
"In the 1980s Brown had to field his share of brickbats from those who accused him of wishful thinking about the very existence of serious reformers inside the Soviet establishment. History proved him right, and his critics wrong. Now, as this volume shows, he has the Soviet archives on his side as well"--Mary Dejevsky (The Times Moscow correspondent during perestroika), Oxford Today
"Mikhail Gorbachev's most important biographer here passes judgment on the man and the process he unleashed...The book's first part comprises four pieces written at the time of perestroika, which in retrospect were remarkably perceptive. In the years since, the mounting archival and memoir evidence--and Brown brings much of it to bear--has only strengthened his argument"--Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs
"Archie Brown is the dean of Gorbachev experts"--Sir Rodric Braithwaite, British Ambassador to Moscow, 1988-1992, Moscow Times
"The real genius of the end of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Archie Brown has been his closest and best commentator."--Financial Times
"Demonstrating his meticulous scholarship and painstaking research, Brown adapts to the Soviet scene the concept of 'institutional amphibiousness', by which some parts of the state system can simultaneously work for functions and purposes contradictory to those of the state."--Times Literary Supplement
"The bulk of the book is a necessary reminder of what Mr. Gorbachev and perestroika achieved--even if inadvertently. For what, asks Mr. Brown, did Mr. Gorbachev sacrifice "the boundless authority, the unquestioning obedience, the orchestrated public adulation"? For freedom of speech, freedom of religion, competitive elections and a host of other accomplishments. The author rightly concludes that the "democratic shortcomings of post--Soviet Russia notwithstanding, the country that Gorbachev bequeathed to his successors was freer than at any time in Russian history"."--The Economist
"Intuition, a talent for scientific foresight, scrupulous attention to the facts, and the ability to bring out from among a great number of conflicting tendencies the most decisive allowed Brown to become an authority on the evaluation both of perestroika and the activity of its leader His most recent reflections give an integral view of the "seven years that changed the world", possessing great value also for the Russian reader."--Lilia Shevtsova, Pro et Contra
Review
"A thorough, balanced, and insightful analysis of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika... essential reading for any person who wishes to understand the turbulent, and in many ways contradictory, period it describes... it will be impossible to have an informed discussion of Gorbachev's legacy without reference to Brown's volume, which represents the current state of research and informed judgment on that watershed period of Russian history and of international relations."--Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Journal of Cold War Studies
"Archie Brown's knowledge of Gorbachev and Gorbachevism is unsurpassed. This new book...highlights the dynamics and significance of perestroika as a major attempt to overhaul the institutional and cultural foundations of Sovietism... On the basis of remarkable archival research, interviews with key actors, and extensive use of personal memoirs, Brown provides a gripping account of the political and moral battles surrounding Gorbachev's efforts to bring down the ossified system inherited from his predecessors and embark on a genuine New Course meant to democratize socialism"--Vladimir Tismaneanu, Perspectives on Politics
"Historical reputations will rise and fall, but there will be one constant feature of Gorbachev's seven years. Nobody else will be able to consider them seriously without reading the work of Archie Brown, who has emerged as the leading authority on the high politics of the period by dint of assiduous labour on the printed record and discussions with virtually all the important individuals involved"--Paul Dukes, History Today
"Archie Brown has established himself as one of the world's authorities on the life and political activity of Mikhail Gorbachev, and this book focuses on his role in the transformation of the USSR between 1985 and 1991."--David Lane, The Political Quarterly
"In the 1980s Brown had to field his share of brickbats from those who accused him of wishful thinking about the very existence of serious reformers inside the Soviet establishment. History proved him right, and his critics wrong. Now, as this volume shows, he has the Soviet archives on his side as well"--Mary Dejevsky (The Times Moscow correspondent during perestroika), Oxford Today
"The book of the renowned British political scientist and historian Archie Brown--the result of many years of work on the theme--uses a wide range of sources: the memoirs of participants in the events, the protocols of Politburo sessions, the articles and speeches of M.S. Gorbachev and his comrades-in-arms and others."--Olga Malinova, Polis (Moscow)
"As all specialists surely know, Archie Brown, currently Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University, was the Western scholar who recognized first and most fully the remarkable leadership talents and radical reformist instincts of Gorbachev... Brown's judgements are so sound and well supported by his close reading of Soviet official documents, archival records, memoirs, and interviews that it is hard to remember that they were well out of the mainstream when he first began propounding them... For this magisterial account of seven years of Gorbachev's remarkable leadership...we are in Archie Brown's debt."--Thomas F. Remington, The Russian Review
"Russian readers... will be grateful to the author for his thoughtful and meticulous analysis of the actions of politicians and of the dramatic events bearing on the fate of millions of former citizens of the former USSR...In his reflections on perestroika and its lessons, he brings the discussion on to a truly international level"--Andrei Grachev, Svobodnaya mysl' [Free Thought]
"Mikhail Gorbachev's most important biographer here passes judgment on the man and the process he unleashed...The book's first part comprises four pieces written at the time of perestroika, which in retrospect were remarkably perceptive. In the years since, the mounting archival and memoir evidence--and Brown brings much of it to bear--has only strengthened his argument"--Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs
"Professor Brown was the most lucidly analytical and perceptive of commentators during those crucial [perestroika] years."--Sir Patrick Cormack, MP, The House Magazine: The Parliamentary Weekly
"Archie Brown is the dean of Gorbachev experts"--Sir Rodric Braithwaite, British Ambassador to Moscow, 1988-1992, Moscow Times
"The real genius of the end of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Archie Brown has been his closest and best commentator."--Financial Times
"Demonstrating his meticulous scholarship and painstaking research, Brown adapts to the Soviet scene the concept of 'institutional amphibiousness', by which some parts of the state system can simultaneously work for functions and purposes contradictory to those of the state."--Times Literary Supplement
"The bulk of the book is a necessary reminder of what Mr. Gorbachev and perestroika achieved--even if inadvertently. For what, asks Mr. Brown, did Mr. Gorbachev sacrifice "the boundless authority, the unquestioning obedience, the orchestrated public adulation"? For freedom of speech, freedom of religion, competitive elections and a host of other accomplishments. The author rightly concludes that the "democratic shortcomings of post--Soviet Russia notwithstanding, the country that Gorbachev bequeathed to his successors was freer than at any time in Russian history"."--The Economist
"Intuition, a talent for scientific foresight, scrupulous attention to the facts, and the ability to bring out from among a great number of conflicting tendencies the most decisive allowed Brown to become an authority on the evaluation both of perestroika and the activity of its leader His most recent reflections give an integral view of the "seven years that changed the world", possessing great value also for the Russian reader."--Lilia Shevtsova, Pro et Contra
About the Author
Archie Brown is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, where he taught for thirty-four years, following seven years as a Lecturer in Politics at Glasgow University. Professor Brown was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991 and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. In 2005 he was awarded the CMG in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 'for services to UK-Russian relations and to the study of political science and international affairs'. His book, The Gorbachev Factor (Oxford University Press, 1996) won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association of the UK for best political science book of the year and the Alec Nove Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. Leading Russia: Putin in Perspective: Essays in Honour of Archie Brown edited by Alex Pravda was published by Oxford University Press in 2005.
Table of Contents
Part 1
1. Introduction
Part 2
2. Gorbachev: New Man in the Kremlin
3. The First Phase of Soviet Reform, 1985-86
4. Fundamental Political Change, 1987-89
5. Reconstructing the Soviet Political System
Part 3
6. Institutional Amphibiousness or Civil Society? The Origins and Development of Perestroika
7. The Dismantling of the System and the Disintegration of the State
8. Transnational Influences in the Transition from Communism
9. Ending the Cold War
10. Gorbachev and His Era in Perspective
Index