Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991 PDF
Preview Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991
JOHN KEEP LAST of the EMPIRES Last of the Empires In this book, John Keep gives a narrative history of the USSR from the last years of Stalin's despotic rule to the eventual col¬ lapse of the empire in 1991. During these years living stan¬ dards slowly improved as various attempts were made to reform Communist rule. Although material prosperity rose under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, the Communist system began to erode as official ideology grew less relevant to peo¬ ple’s everyday concerns; the Party lost its moral authority. The early 1980s saw a growing black market economy, incom¬ petent management, and agricultural waste. When control passed to pragmatic, younger leaders like Gorbachev, their attempts to reinvigorate the economy by appealing to the intelligentsia opened a Pandora’s box of conflicting opinions. The Party surrendered its monopoly of power, central institu¬ tions crumbled, and the centrifugal forces emanating from national minorities culminated in the empire’s downfall. 'John Keep has produced a masterpiece. In his introduction he states that the book is a “narrative history”, which it is, designed for the “general reader”. It is much more than that.’ Roy D. Laird, University of Kansas OPUS General Editors Christopher Butler Robert Evans John Skorupski OPUS books provide concise, original, and authoritative introductions to a wide range of subjects in the humanities and sciences. They are written by experts for the general reader as well as for students. John Keep has studied and lectured in Russian History for many years. He was a research assistant with the Foreign Office from 1953-4, a lecturer in Modern Russian History at the University of London between 1954 and 1966, and Reader in Russian Studies there from 1966 to 1970. In 1964 he became a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and he was Professor of Russian History at the University of Toronto between 1970 and 1988. He has now retired. His previous publications include The Rise of Social Democracy in Russia (Clarendon Press, 1963), Contemporary History in the Soviet Mirror (edited with L. Brisby in 1964), The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization (1976), and Soldiers of the Tsar: Army and Society in Russia, 1462-1874 (Clarendon Press, 1985). Last of the Empires A History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991 it // John L. H. Keep ■M38 / <5*?j C < A 38C Oxford New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press © John Keep 1995 First published by Oxford University Press 1995 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback 1996 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Keep, John L. H. Last of the empires: a history of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991 / John L. H. Keep p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. /. Soviet Union—History. I. Title. DK267.K38 1995 947.084—dc20 94-37237 ISBN 0-19-2892 37-1 10 98765432 Printed in Great Britain Acknowledgements Several friends and colleagues kindly read parts of the manuscript of this book before publication and made helpful suggestions. Special thanks are due to the following: Jane Ellis, Raymond Hutchings, Alexei Litvin, Alastair McAuley, Martin McCauley, Peter Reddaway, John Massey Stewart, Harry Rigby, Alfred Steinegger, and Boris Thomson. None of them are to blame for its shortcomings, for which responsibility is mine alone. My final privilege is to pay tribute to the support and encouragement given by my wife Ann, who did more to make this book possible than I had any right to expect. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/lastofempireshisOOOOkeep
The list of books you might like
