Utopia in Power [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Mikhail Heller (Author), Nadia May (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Beginning prior to October 1917 and continuing through 1985 and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, this magnum opus has been universally acclaimed as the best history of the Soviet Union available. 13 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The authors, both emigres from the USSR, characterize its past as "the history of the transformation of Russia . . . into a phenomenon such as humanity has never known." This book chronicles that transformation. It is a chilling record, and their concluding judgments as to why the "phenomenon" has survived will not please or convince all Western readers. There is a heavy focus on cultural developments anda welcome inclusionon the three waves of emigration from the USSR since 1917. The survey concludes with the observation that the Soviet system can only survive if it expands: the authors' warning to the West is very clear. This is not a textbook but a highly readable, passionate, and scholarly critique of the Soviet experiment and its effect upon the peoples of the USSR. R.H. Johnston, History Dept., McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786100451
• ISBN-13: 978-0786100453
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,860,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid but dry history, June 15, 2002

By 

Robert Rosen (Lakeland, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present (Paperback)

This book is very well researched but it's an incredibly boring read. If you're interested in things like Soviet wheat production in the 1940's, this is the book for you. The writer does a good job of showing how the twisted Soviet ideology made the U.S.S.R. more than just your "typical" dictatorship. The book makes it all too clear that the country under Stalin was simply a hell on earth. Unfortunately, personalities and geopolitical situations are given very short shrift and this is what makes the book such a difficult read. The book condenses far too much concering the immediate pre-Revolutionary era as well as the Revolution itself and the subsequent consolidation. One scarcely has an idea why it happened or why the people who led it tried to make it come about. Some fascinating passages concern the time just after after St. Petersburg falls. The Bolsheviks simply wait and do nothing, apparently believing that the historical "laws" set forth by Marx will soon kick into gear and communism will just appear. Instead things turn bloody quickly. Tragic and comic all at once. A bit more of this kind of thing would have made for a better read. By the end of the book the author ignores the conclusion his own book should have been leading him too. He shows how the Soviet Union had become a stagnant backward hopeless mess with an embittered populace, yet he fails to see its inevitable collapse which occurred just shortly after the publication of the book. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose but if the CIA had had a few copies of this book back in the 1980's, perhaps they would not have been so blindsided.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best History of the Soviet Union I Have Read!, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present (Paperback)

Heller and Nekrich have written a comprehensive, indepth history of the Soviet Union. They give a perspective that is not politicized nor P.C., but factual. A must read for 20th century scholors and students. I would also highly recommend Heller's book "Cogs in the Wheel" to understand how the Soviet Union tried to reshape humane nature.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of It's Kind, January 16, 2009

By 

L. Peyronnin "liquidlen" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present (Paperback)

This history book is the best of its kind; by two Russian historians who lived and worked in the West, and so can see the face of the animal they came from with cold objectivity, warts and all. Included is a refreshing Russian pronouncement that Western Allied aid to the USSR during 1941-1944 was crucial to the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.