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Martin E. Malia
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The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991 Paperback – November 14, 1995

by Martin Malia (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 61 ratings
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The Soviet Union 1917-1991 (Longman History of Russia)
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The Soviet Tragedy is an essential coda to the literature of Soviet studies...Insofar as [he] returns the power of ideology to its central place in Soviet history, Malia has made an enormous contribution. He has written the history of a utopian illusion and the tragic consequences it had for the people of the Soviet Union and the world.
-- David Remnick, The New York Review of Books
"In Martin Malia, the Soviet Union had one of its most acute observers. With this book, it may well have found the cornerstone of its history."
-- Francois Furet, author of Interpreting the French Revolution
"The Soviet Tragedy offers the most thorough scholarly analysis of the Communist phenomenon that we are likely to get for a long while to come...Malia states that his narrative is intended 'to substantiate the basic argument,' and this is certainly an argumentative book, which drives its thesis home with hammer blows. On this breathtaking journey, Malia is a witty and often brilliantly penetrating guide. He has much wisdom to impart."
-- The Times Literary Supplement
"This is history at the high level, well deployed factually, but particularly worthwhile in the philosophical and political context -- at once a view and an overview."
-- The Washington Post
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  1. Print length
    592 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    November 14, 1995
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 1.7 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0684823136
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0684823133
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin Edward Malia was a historian specializing in Russian history. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley from 1958 to 1991. Malia's best known work is his history of Russian communism, The Soviet Tragedy.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press; 0 edition (November 14, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684823136
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684823133
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.7 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

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Martin E. Malia

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
61 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the writing quality well-written and eloquent. They also describe the information as brilliant, informative, and interesting. Readers say the book is an invaluable work from Martin Malia.

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5 customers mention "Writing quality"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book clear-sighted and eloquent. They also say it's interesting.

"So excellently written, I flew through this book, eating up every word. Does well making its case for the tragedy of socialism in Russia...." Read more

"Very interesting book but very bias and one sided...." Read more

"A clear sighted and well written thesis about the tragedy of the Soviet Union...." Read more

"Malia writes so well. He knows the history, but he isn't just writing academic history here...." Read more

4 customers mention "Information quality"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book brilliant, informative, and interesting. They say it includes much interesting commentary that puts each step into perspective.

"...It includes much interesting commentary that puts each step into perspective...." Read more

"Malia asks all the right questions. A brilliant analysis." Read more

"invaluable work from Martin Malia." Read more

"Informative and Interesting..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Louis M. Marquet
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting tale, somewhat dated, needs an update for today
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2019
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So excellently written, I flew through this book, eating up every word. Does well making its case for the tragedy of socialism in Russia. It also is showing its age somewhat with the renewed nationalism that Russia now appears to be undergoing with Putin as the head of state. I would recommend this book to any lovers of history or anyone curious about the peculiar failure, and epic tragedy of the Russian socialist experiment.
5 people found this helpful
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Mojo
5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar!
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2016
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This is quite simply a stellar history of the USSR from the point that it was a twinkling in Lenin's eye to its downfall. It includes much interesting commentary that puts each step into perspective. If you're interested in the history of the USSR you must read this book. There is one thing about it that drove me absolutely nuts--the author's habit of using latin and russian words with no explaination of what they mean. Here's an example:

"As a practical matter, therefore, socialism leads not to an assault on the specific abuses of “capitalism” but to an assault on reality tout court. It becomes, in effect, an effort to suppress the real world, and this is something that cannot succeed in the long run. But for a protracted period this effort can succeed in creating a surreal world, one defined by the paradox that inefficiency, poverty, and brutality can be officially presented as the summum bonum of society, and one where society is unable to challenge this fraud."

I'd like to just smack him for that!
3 people found this helpful
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J. J. Cash
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2013
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In his magnum opus, Soviet Tragedy, the late Professor Martin Malia took an important and fascinating position in that great historiographical debate about the Soviet Union. Malia's work in general agrees with scholars like Richard Pipes and disagrees with scholars like Sheila Fitzpatrick, but it stands out for the nuance of its argument. Malia does not set out only to give support to many of Pipes' assertions, but also to address what Cold War don John Lewis Gaddis sees as an embarrassment of Sovietology: the fact that none of the "experts" seemed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The basic premise of Soviet Tragedy is that ideology, rather than either great men or material conditions, was the prime mover of Soviet history. Malia thus begins his history of the Soviet Union in a unique way: he gives a brief history of Western philosophy. Malia sees the entire history of modern moral philosophy as a response to the Age of Reason. This period saw the overthrow of Aristotelian science, which consequently led to great cultural shift of seeing the world as a scientist, rather than a believer. Thus, German thinkers such as Kant and Hegel attempted to establish, from pure reason, the conclusions that were endorsed by Christian teaching. The end result of this German intellectual tradition was the ersatz religion of Marxism.

Malia next spends some time recounting familiar information about Russia's unique history (the Russiann Sonderweg, if you will) and how the birth of the Soviet state was the combination of this history, modern Western philosophy, and the cataclysmic events of the First World War. He then turns his attention to Soviet history proper, from 1918 to 1991. He argues forcefully that this period witnesses a contest between two separate Communist ideologies: hard and soft Communism. The former would dominate the U.S.S.R until it "pushed the human and material fabric of the country to the breaking point", as it did during the War Communism period. Soft communism, exemplified best by Lenin's New Economic Policy, would then takeover, and would remain the dominant ideology until it looked as if the Party would lose control of the country. Thus the NEP was replaced with Stalin's first Five Year Plan. This back and forth between hard and soft communism would continue until Gorbachev's experiment with the latter, which would irrevocably end the Party's dominance.

Written as it was after the demise of the Soviet Union, Malia's work is important not so much for its conclusions about the Soviet Union as it for its conclusions about the nature of historical studies. Malia echoes John Lewis Gaddis' assertion that the failure to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union should be seen as an embarrassment for social scientists, and furthermore claims that the years after 1991 presented a missed opportunity at reflecting upon the discipline of history. Malia singles out Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber-the three founders of the social sciences-for criticism. He suggests that our guide to the Soviet period should have Alexis de Tocqueville all along, as it was Tocqueville who not only famous predicted the fates of both the United States and Russia, but who also famously declared that the most dangerous period for any authoritarian regime was the moment it started to reform itself.

Malia's work thus argues that the collapse of the Soviet Union proves that, besides reflecting upon the failings of individual Sovietologists and Kremlinologists, we ought to take a long and critical look at the evolution of history as a disclipine. In this respect Malia is highly relevant for today. In an world where thinkers such as Nassim Taleb frequently cast doubt upon the value of history, Soviet Tragedy can and should be seen as a defense of history's potential value, and as a guide to unlocking that potential.
32 people found this helpful
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SO
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book but very bias and one sided. ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018
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Very interesting book but very bias and one sided. He believes the problem lies with socialism its self that its evil while missing the failures of Russian leaders and Russian society in general.
9 people found this helpful
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Sandite
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015
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It is rare in a book that education and entertainment are molded together to form a page turner that informs the intellect. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned much.
7 people found this helpful
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Eleanor Kett
5.0 out of 5 stars The horror of the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist experiment.
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2018
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A clear sighted and well written thesis about the tragedy of the Soviet Union. Martin Malia gave us a heartfelt story of the unlucky people who had to undergo Lenin's experiment.
7 people found this helpful
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Kindle CustomerBill McHugh
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2019
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An excellent review of the reasons that Marxism ends in totalitarian dictatorship. But fools keep trying.
14 people found this helpful
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M
2.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this book if you were expecting a general history
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016
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First off, this book is not a true history, but rather a political commentary. Instead of recounting events, discussing the effects, and analyzing the literature of the time, Malia focuses on concepts and ideas concerning the October revolution and the aftermath. If you want a true historical treatment of Russian history between 1917 and 1991, then might I suggest much more effective works such as "The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia", and other works.

It seems like Malia just wants to use as many words as he can find in a thesaurus. This book illustrates how modern intellectuals seem to be more concerned with speaking as R3 as possible, regardless of whether or not they can make a coherent point. I feel like the first 100 pages of this work could have been compressed into 50 or less, because half the time Malia is twisting himself into tighter and tighter theoretical and philosophical circles, instead of establishing needed information and make coherent points about it.

This is not a bad book by any means, but the fact that after reading through hundreds of pages and never finding an actual history book is misleading. Many other authors who are just as intelligent and experienced with Communism in Russia can offer you the book you were looking for.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jorge Hernández Paricio
5.0 out of 5 stars Gran libro
Reviewed in Spain on October 31, 2022
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Muy bueno
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ALIEN
4.0 out of 5 stars Reste passionnant vingt ans après
Reviewed in France on December 12, 2017
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Cette fresque historique affiche son parti pris : le bilan cruel et catastrophique du communisme soviétique est dû à la nature même du marxisme et à sa traduction par Lénine. La démonstration, largement commentée, et le plus souvent positivement, chez amazon.fr et amazon.com, reste intéressante et convaincante plus de vingt ans après la publication. Plutôt que paraphraser d'autres analyses, souvent riches, je me contenterai, ici, d'apprécier la conclusion où l'auteur prévoit que pratiques sexuelles atypiques, populations allogènes et délires écologiques pourraient remplacer, peut-être, le prolétariat ouvrier d'antan. Bien vu ! Par contre, l'évolution de la Chine à la suite des réformes de Deng Xiaoping n'est guère prise en compte. C'est pourtant indispensable dans toute autopsie du marxisme-léninisme. Etait-ce trop tôt alors ? La version Kindle que j'ai lue souffre de coquilles agaçantes, même si elles n'empêchent jamais la compréhension. Sont-elle dues au passage au numérique, ou préexistent-elles dans la version imprimée classique ? Je parie pour la première alternative.
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