Gorbachev [Paperback]

Mikhail Gorbachev (Author), George Shriver (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231115156 | ISBN-13: 978-0231115155 | Publication Date: October 15, 2000

Here is the whole sweep of the Soviet experiment and experience as told by its last steward. Drawing on his own experience, rich archival material, and a keen sense of history and politics, Mikhail Gorbachev speaks his mind on a range of subjects concerning Russia's past, present, and future place in the world. Here is Gorbachev on the October Revolution, Gorbachev on the Cold War, and Gorbachev on key figures such as Lenin, Stalin, and Yeltsin.

The book begins with a look back at 1917. While noting that tsarist Russia was not as backward as it is often portrayed, Gorbachev argues that the Bolshevik Revolution was inevitable and that it did much to modernize Russia. He strongly argues that the Soviet Union had a positive influence on social policy in the West, while maintaining that the development of socialism was cut short by Stalinist totalitarianism. In the next section, Gorbachev considers the fall of the USSR. What were the goals of perestroika? How did such a vast superpower disintegrate so quickly? From the awakening of ethnic tensions, to the inability of democrats to unite, to his own attempts to reform but preserve the union, Gorbachev retraces those fateful days and explains the origins of Russia's present crisis.

But Gorbachev does not just train his critical eye on the past. He lays out a blueprint for where Russia needs to go in the next century, suggesting ways to strengthen the federation and achieve meaningful economic and political reforms. In the final section of the book, Gorbachev examines the "new thinking" in foreign policy that helped to end the Cold War and shows how such approaches could help resolve a range of current crises, including NATO expansion, the role of the UN, the fate of nuclear weapons, and environmental problems.

Gorbachev: On My Country and the World reveals the unique vision of a man who was a powerful actor on the world stage and remains a keen observer of Russia's experience in the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gorbachev, who currently heads a Moscow think tank (the Gorbachev Foundation), takes a hard look at world affairs in a memoir that showcases both the former Soviet premier's intelligence and his self-defeating idealism. He sharply warns that Russia is slipping back toward authoritarian rule with a paralyzed parliament and mass media firmly controlled by big government and oligarchs. Downplaying the role of nationalist movements in hastening the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, he acrimoniously blames its disintegration on Boris Yeltsin, whom he accuses of an irresponsible quest for power. In issuing vigorous calls for the peaceful, democratic co-development of all nations, for nuclear disarmament and for a strengthened U.N., he tries to present himself as a democratic humanist. But too often he still sounds like a die-hard Marxist-Leninist. While he condemns Bolshevik one-party rule as a colossal disaster, he assigns nearly all of the blame to Stalin and clings to the fantasy that under Lenin the Party still maintained strong democratic traditions. He upholds the idea of socialism, arguing that genuine socialism has never been triedAnot in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or elsewhere. His support of a stronger U.N., furthermore, is based at least as much on his distrust of the U.S. (he has harsh words for the NATO war on Yugoslavia) as it is on any faith in the international organization. In the end, this is the memoir of a humane man who appears never to have been able to appreciate the difference between abstraction and real life or, as a socialist might say, between theory and practice. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In these three essays, the former Soviet leader discusses the 1917 revolution, the Soviet Union and its demise, and international relations He feels that a 1917 revolution in Russia was inevitable, although subsequent mistakes by Soviet leaders turned the result into something less than the ideal Socialist state, in which he clearly still believes. The second part is most like his previous books, including Memoirs and The August Coup, in being his own account of his own time. He details at considerable length the 1991 efforts to negotiate and ratify a Union treaty among the republics and the numerous advantages that a formal federation would have brought to all. The third section emphasizes international relations now that the confrontation of the Cold War has ended and a New World Order is emerging. While the shape of that order cannot be predicted, Gorbachev optimistically looks forward to greater emphasis on human rights and values in a better world. This title will appeal primarily to an informed audience.AMarcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (October 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231115156
• ISBN-13: 978-0231115155
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book Itself Is History, February 1, 2001

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gorbachev (Paperback)

It was not that long ago when a person would have been thought foolish if they believed a former, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, would be writing books for anyone who was interested. It also is not very long ago that a person writing about any one of the dozens of issues in this book, would have spent many, if not their remaining years in a Siberian Camp. Since Mr. Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985 until he resigned as President in 1991, history has been made that will fill countless books for many years to come.

If there is one aspect of this book that I were to state as particularly fascinating it would be the transcripts from Politburo Meetings. Here are the same men expressing their thoughts in reality, when the same members of this inner sanctum of The Kremlin have been the foundation for spy and Cold War Novels for decades. If you are looking for "the evil empire", plotting the destruction of the West, you will be disappointed. The arguments and the positioning that continually deteriorate into political and personal feuds as the former USSR became the target of varied interests, reads like much of what we listen to and watch here with our elected officials.

Mr. Gorbachev is not an apologist for the Former Soviet Union. As someone who grew up with the USSR portrayed as the ultimate evil, the book requires a major change in perspective for the reader. A willingness to listen to a man that is extremely well informed, a Statesman, and a thinker far and away the superior to those who now rule the remains of the USSR, and its kleptocratic economy. I found his words to be remarkably candid when criticizing his own mistakes, and those of the USSR, and his criticisms of US Policy were more often valid than not. The world was divided into two camps with each side portraying the other as the ultimate threat for most of the 20th Century. The truth of course is never that simple. The stories shared by Mr. Gorbachev have another facet; they are absolutely terrifying at times.

It is not possible to comment on even a portion of his ideas. His writing is very dense, and takes getting comfortable with to complete the book. This may in part be due to translation issues, and there are footnotes where ambiguity may have been critical.

His narration of the USSR coming apart is not only fascinating, it was infinitely more complex than many care to recall, and the complexities are by no measure solved. The USSR was never a monolithic beast. It was composed of 15 distinct republics that were made all the more complex by forced immigrations, ethnic complications, and the arbitrary creation of borders. Borders that became not only critical but also disputed to the point of war, when the Union was dissolved.

During his book he covers the history of his country and the larger union, the problems then, and the challenges now. He also takes the reader through the removal of The Wall In Berlin, the first border disputes in Azerbaijan and Armenia, and all the drama of the Baltic States and their pronouncements of independence.

I certainly would not presume to rank what is important in this book, or what was of the greatest importance to Mr. Gorbachev. A critical passage for me was when he made the issues he spoke of personal for him, and those of his Countrymen.

He spoke of the sense of loss felt by citizens during the turmoil and breakup. He acknowledged why people on the outside may have their views, but as a private citizen he and many others had and do have their own. Because there is one fact you cannot get away from; the homes, countries, borders, and lives that were lead were the only life most had ever known. The times of the Tsars are none too fondly remembered either. So on the human level, not the handful that is destroying the remains, the pardoned thieves like Yeltsin and his Family and others, many miss the life they had. For many it was not only the life they knew, it was far better than the one they now live.

A remarkable opportunity to view History from a different perspective, by one of the men at its center.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Socialism - from the inside, September 28, 2000

By 

J. Michael Cole (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gorbachev (Hardcover)

Mr. Gorbachev's On My Country and The World is a refreshing account of what went on in the USSR as it sunk into the dark waters of Stalin's socialism. To Westerners like myself, it demonstrates that oftentimes our opinions about foreign philosophies are incomplete, let alone downright mistaken. Case in point: Gorbachev's defense of socialism and its virtues, which, I must concede, is rather convincing and does manage to make us look at our own system from a slightly different perspective.

The tenacity with which he attempted to preserve some form of "state entity" during and after perestroika is commendable, but I believe that such an endeavor was doomed to failure from the start. Anyhow, it shows us how deeply he felt about the USSR and how hard he tried to turn it into a workable socialist system that had learned from past mistakes and was ready to participate in the emerging market economy system.

Where I have to disagree with Mr. Gorbachev is on the topic of intervention, in places such as Iraq and, more recently, Bosnia and Kosovo. Mr. Gorbachev is an advocate of diplomacy, and I have nothing against this. But diplomacy, with "leaders" such as Saddam Hussein or the hopefully-departing Milosevic, is, I believe, a finite process, and procrastination, once everything has been attempted, can have terrible consequences (read, among others, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Chechnya). He emphasizes the need to enforce diplomacy through the UN (as should we all) but does not give alternatives or bring new ideas in case such diplomatic measures fail to prevent humanitarian catastrophes or crimes against humanity. For an elucidating read on this, readers should refer to William Shawcross's Deliver Us From Evil.

A nice philosophical foray into history, politics and future challenges faced by civilization. Intelligent, succinct, it is worth the few hours you will need to read it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorbachev: True Socialism, December 7, 1999

By 

Obren (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gorbachev (Hardcover)

This book not only sheds light on many aspects of the October Revolution, but brings back the real meaning of socialism without the preconceived ideas that the West has created. Gorbachev's attempt to reform the USSR is described with astoning revelations on alleged conspiracy against Gorbachev himself. A must read in order to understand the collapse of the Soviet empire, through its number one insider.