A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (The New Cold War History) New edition

by Vladislav M. Zubok (Author)

77 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0807830987

ISBN-10: 0807830984

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A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (The New Cold War History)
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Western interpretations of the Cold War--both realist and neoconservative--have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the twentieth century.

Using recently declassified Politburo records, ciphered telegrams, diaries, and taped conversations, among other sources, Zubok explores the origins of the superpowers' confrontation under Stalin, Khrushchev's contradictory and counterproductive attempts to ease tensions, the surprising story of Brezhnev's passion for detente, and Gorbachev's destruction of the Soviet superpower as the by-product of his hasty steps to end the Cold War and to reform the Soviet Union. The first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side, A Failed Empire provides a history different from those written by the Western victors.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

[A Failed Empire] draw[s] on abundant new primary sources to refine our understanding of the Cold War, turning it from a melodrama into a nuanced tragedy. . . . Rich in new information and fresh interpretation. Zubok reveals the full extent of Stalin's brutal post-World War II suppression of the Soviet People.--Washington Post Book World

Make[s] use of significant new primary sources but also offer[s]a more inclusive approach with respect to the considerations shaping policy on both sides.--American Historical Review

Ranks as the new standard work on the Soviet Union's Cold War--for scholars and students alike. . . . An excellent combination of old and new, offering both a synthetic interpretation of Soviet foreign policy in the latter half of the twentieth century and fresh new material to reconceptualize the factors behind that policy. . . . An important book [and] a standout.--Journal of American History

An excellent survey of Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, one which draws on a wide range of memoirs, secondary literature, and the still-patchy archival record.--Russian Review

Fluently and authoritatively told.--International History Review

Zubok has been prominent amongst those reassessing Soviet foreign policy through the newly available primary sources. . . . [A Failed Empire] extends the story to the end of the Cold War and provides an excellent overview of the whole period.--International Journal

This challenging account is perhaps the most complete and compelling yet written of the Soviet side of the Cold War.--Virginia Quarterly Review

A fascinating and truly insightful study of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. . . . A valuable resource in understanding not only the history of the Soviet Union but the 20th century as a whole.--WHRW News

The first work in English to cover the entire Cold War from the Soviet side . . . provides a history different from those written by the Western victors.--Ventunesimo Secolo

"A significant contribution to a field that has long been dominated by West-centric analyses. . . . Highly recommended.--CHOICE

An impressively documented history of Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, and a revealing look at the motives that guided key decision makers within the Kremlin. . . . Should be required reading for anyone interested in the Cold War or post-1945 European history.--Europe-Asia Studies

Zubok's book has established an important marker by which future historical studies will be measured.--Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews

Zubok has taken on a huge challenge in attempting to narrate the entire evolution of the Cold War from the perspective of the apex of power in Moscow. He succeeds admirably. . . . This is a book that can be read by the specialist and generalist alike. . . . The book should reignite serious discussion about the causes of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which is the subject of his interesting conclusion.--History Book Club

Reveals in fascinating detail the ins and outs of how the top echelons wrestled and fought with often insuperable problems. . . . Has decided virtues: information, insights, arguments. . . . No one knows more about the collective life of the Soviet leadership in this epoch than Zubok.--Journal of Modern History

Review

An excellent overview of Soviet foreign policy and a forceful explanation of why Communism collapsed, centering on Gorbachev's mistakes and misjudgments.--O. A. Westad, author of The Global Cold War

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; New edition (September 24, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 488 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807830984
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807830987
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,178,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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- #4,139 in Communism & Socialism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
77 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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C. Freeman

I love this book

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2016

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I love this book, and I’ve already ordered Zubok’s “Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War”,
First, Zubok is a Russian, born and educated in Moscow, so the book is clearly written, both by his acknowledged design, and his perspective, from that point of view. This is not an apologia or an attack on the Soviet Union’s adversaries, but he deals with external events and factors based upon their impact on the thinking of Soviet leadership, and their resulting actions. He more or less steps around the “human rights” issues, instead focusing on how they impacted internal thinking, particularly the Czechoslovakian revolt which undercut the intellectual renaissance that occurred under Khrushchev, and dramatically impacted Gorbachev.
Zubok has four main points in the book:
1. The belief in socialism was real, perhaps not Stalin, but for the leadership before and after, and many more, it was a driving force; they did believe they were doing something special, developing a alternative to Capitalism/Westernism not just to modernize the Soviet Union, but the post-colonial world as well.
2. World War II was the searing experience that changed everything, Stalin included. The need for a buffer against Germany was as important, if not more important, than ideology in holding on to Eastern Europe, leading to the East/West conflict.
3. The American / Western strategy of containment fed the xenophobia unleashed by World War II. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev all seemed to let disarmament slip away, sometimes their mistakes, and sometimes things they could not control like Watergate and the demise of Détente. Exhausting their country in the Arms Race.
4. In the end, the Soviet Union was not defeated, “it committed suicide.”
The final point is perhaps most interesting, and it displays the current Russian, and the author’s, ambivalence about Gorbachev, and loss of the empire. What mattered in the end was the decline of the ideology on which the empire was built. Despite the colossal military power, with the erosion faith, people were not prepared to support a system they no longer believed in. One December 8th, 1991, in a hunting lodge, Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of Belarus and the Ukraine, disbanded the Soviet Union.
It’s an interesting perspective as presidential candidates tell us our system is rigged?

15 people found this helpful

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Mark Lingunis

This book is a missed opportunity on a great subject

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2021

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The subtitle of this book is “The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev”. One would normally expect to understand more about the Berlin crisis, the life of ordinary citizens within the Soviet Union, why central management if the economy failed, the Russian involvement in the Six Days War, the Cuban Missile crisis, the Prague Spring, KGB, or life in a Gulag for that matter. Each of those subjects receives anywhere from no mention at all (life in a Gulag, KGB spy raft, Six Days War) to the most cursory mention (Berlin, Cuba, Prague).

The whole emphasis is on the thoughts and machinations of personalities in and around the Kremlin. The Soviet Union wasn’t any more identical to the Kremlin than the United States boils down to the White House. Although in its narrow focus the book is very well researched and detailed, I can only give it two stars, as I honestly didn’t learn anything new from it, besides trivial details.

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Richard C. Geschke

In the End Did the USSR Decide on Suicide?

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2012

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Now in the second decade of the 21st century we are starting to get the whole story of what transpired during the long hard winter which is known as the Cold War. This particular book is of utmost importance as it is written from the Soviet perspective and gives the reader an insight to the mindset of how the USSR perceived and conducted themselves during these highly stressful times of postwar polemics.
The author is of Russian descent and brings up the history of how the USSR conducted themselves during post WWII. Mr. Zubok brings to us many interesting perspectives from the time of Stalin's strategies during and after the Potsdam conference unto his untimely death in 1953 to the reign of the unabashed brinksmanship of Khrushchev which in hindsight brought us closest to a nuclear disaster both in Berlin and Cuba. Onward Zubok goes into the days of endless detente where Brezhnev tries to control the tempo of not trying to conduct any type of nuclear confrontation.
Zubok goes into all the intrigues of Stalin who tried to gain as much territory in Central Europe and countered the Marshall Plan with the Berlin Blockade and later instigated China to persuade North Korea to attack South Korea. Stalin used these ruses to distract the USA while he consolidated power in Eastern and Central Europe.
Later Zubok explains the actions of the brinksmanship of Khrushchev which brought the Cold War to the edge of nuclear disaster. Later we learn of the grand détente strategies that became the trademark of the old line Communist that was Brezhnev. During of the post Stalin era Zubok explains the tactics, fears and insecurities that the USSR were dealing with during this crucial Cold War era.
Through this time period Zubok also explains the counter-strategies and mistakes made by the USA. All though this relatively long time span of 43 years, we see the USSR struggling financially trying to keep up their Socialist empire while competing with the free enterprise that the USA conducted.
With the old guard of the USSR dying off we have a young reform minded leader in Gobachev leading the USSR into the final stages of Soviet Communism. Gobachev realized that the old strategies and way of conducting a socialist economy would never continue to work. The USSR was economically dying along with all of her satellites of Eastern Europe. Dealing with Reagan and then Bush we see not only the death of Communism in Europe but the death of the government of the USSR. How and why it happened so fast is why you must read this fascinating book done from a Russian historian. This is an eye-opening and an original concept of why and what had happened from inside the USSR from their own perspective.

11 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Marc Ranger

The other side of the coin

Reviewed in Canada on October 14, 2014

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This book is the other side of the coin. It relates the Cold War from the Soviet perspective, from Stalin to Gorbachev.
Each leader motivations are explored and analysed; Stalin's confrontation method, xenophobia and arch-control, Khrushchev's akwardness and "nuclear brinkmanship", Brezhnev peacemaking detente and Gorbachev "new thinking".

Four important aspects stands out from the work; for starters; Molotov's and Beria's roles and contribution regarding the Cold War. Secondly, Brezhnev highly important contribution to world safety and retreat from the confrontation mode. Thirdly, Gorbachev new thinking, way ahead of his or our time, who refuses to use force to implement ideas or power.

Last but not least, even if this work is critical of both US and Soviet policies, it represent the perfect counter-balance for US and Western-based reviews of the Cold War who claims that US intransigeance and power were the only reason the Soviet empire ultimatly fell.

Finally, I would give this book a 5 star if only it would have been a little easier to read. By no means a page-turner however, it will nonetheless wet your appetite, and feed your knowledge of the Cold War.

N. Barkan

A great analytical overview of ussr history.very readabke

Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2021

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Best book of its kind clear and detailed and not too long

sharda

Great!

Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2020

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Great authors! The book was in brand new condition. I read it in a week

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