AN Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991: Third Edition (Penguin Economics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Alec Nove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995 | Series: Penguin Economics

This update to "The History of the Soviet Economy" covers the period from the Bolshevik seizure of power to the aftermath of the failed coup, which speeded up the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The final chapter encompasses Gorbachev's attempt to reform the old system and the failure of that attempt. The development of "glasnost" included the opening to Russian and foreign scholars of archives and access to information previously concealed. Newley available information has therefore been added to individual chapters where relevant.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Revised edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140157743
• ISBN-13: 978-0140157741
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best-Available One-Volume Economic History of the USSR, November 29, 2000

By 

Rod D. Martin (Grace Hall, Destin, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: AN Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991: Third Edition (Penguin Economics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Nove's history, already widely acclaimed (I had it as assigned reading at Cambridge), is updated in this "final" edition, completed just after the collapse of the USSR. It is extremely readable, just over 400 pages long, and gives a truly outstanding overview -- for the academic and the lay reader alike -- of the rise and fall of the Russian economy, from just before World War I until Gorbachev's resignation. Nove, one of the finest scholars in the field, makes full use of the then newly-opened Soviet archives to add to and refine what was already a brilliant work, and captures herein the first-ever scholarly assessment of the extraordinary Soviet experiment as a whole.

Alec Nove was Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow from 1963 to 1982, subsequently becoming Emeritus Professor and Honorary Research Fellow.

3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dated Book relying on old statistics?, February 13, 2003

By 

A_2007_reader (Vladivostok, Russia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: AN Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991: Third Edition (Penguin Economics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Questionable statistics?: 13% of a crop destroyed is quoted, when the actual figures were probably much higher--some say 90% of a crop rotted. Who is to say? This is why nobody will ever definitively write the economic history of the USSR. At best educated guesses. But the author tries.

However, an economic history as opposed to a political history is for the USSR a distorted picture of what happened, because of the bad data problem mentioned above. Hence the three stars.