Armageddon Averted

The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000

By: Stephen Kotkin

Narrated by: John Pruden

Featuring extensive revisions to the text as well as a new introduction and epilogue - bringing the book completely up to date on the tumultuous politics of the previous decade and the long-term implications of the Soviet collapse - this compact, original, and engaging book offers the definitive account of one of the great historical events of the last 50 years.

Combining historical and geopolitical analysis with an absorbing narrative, Kotkin draws upon extensive research, including memoirs by dozens of insiders and senior figures, to illuminate the factors that led to the demise of Communism and the USSR. The new edition puts the collapse in the context of the global economic and political changes from the 1970s to the present day. Kotkin creates a compelling profile of post-Soviet Russia, and he reminds us, with chilling immediacy, of what could not have been predicted - that the world's largest police state, with several million troops, a doomsday arsenal, and an appalling record of violence, would liquidate itself with barely a whimper.

Throughout the book, Kotkin also paints vivid portraits of key personalities. Using recently released archive materials, for example, he offers a fascinating picture of Gorbachev, describing this virtuoso tactician and resolutely committed reformer as "flabbergasted by the fact that his socialist renewal was leading to the system's liquidation" - and more or less going along with it.

At once authoritative and provocative, Armageddon Averted illuminates the collapse of the Soviet Union, revealing how "principled restraint and scheming self-interest brought a deadly system to meek dissolution".

©2001 Stephen Kotkin (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The clearest picture we have to date of the post-Soviet landscape." (The New Yorker)

"A triumph of the art of contemporary history." (The Atlantic Monthly)

"Concise and persuasive. The mystery, for Kotkin, is not so much why the Soviet Union collapsed as why it did so with so little collateral damage." (The New York Review of Books)

Great Overview

No excess of names hard to remember. Good timetable of events. Author well acquainted with countries and history. May not be completely unbiased, but that is impossible.

Excellent read

The book is an informative and fascinating look at the players in and the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kotkin shares his obviously extensive research!

Enlightening historical details and insightful commentary on the wildly unlikely, overall peaceful but chaotic dissolution of the USSR.

A fever dream on the fall of the USSR

Mr. Kotkin has boiled a bunch of history down to 5.5 hours so the material is dense and fascinating. Found myself relistening to parts of it multiple times to understand his interpretation. Not sure this is a book for folks unfamiliar with the general history as there is little background, narrative or specific exposition of the events. It is essentially a fast moving overview of the historical events along with Kotkin's interpretation of their meaning. In the hands of someone lesser this would be a problem but here we are guided by one of the great experts on Russian history so it is very worthwhile

Fascinating

A brief but compelling essay on the breakup of the USSR. Considering the actors both inside and outside Russia, it's a miracle it turned out as well as it did .