Revolution 1989

The Fall of the Soviet Empire

By: Victor Sebestyen

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Revolution 1989 by British journalist Victor Sebestyen is a comprehensive and revealing account of those dizzying days that toppled Soviet tyranny and changed the World. For more than 40 years, communism held eight European nations in its iron fist. Yet by the end of 1989, all of these nations had thrown off communism, declared independence, and embarked on the road to democracy.

©2009 Victor Sebestyen (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

A fascinating survey of the era

Those who are already interested in the history of the Eastern Bloc will find this rich with satisfactory detail. Others new to the subject will appreciate the wide variety of areas covered, and the focus on the individuals, not only the overall movements and ideologies involved. The narrative moves back and forth between the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Afghanistan, and Czechoslovakia, so it's necessary to pay attention or one might get lost; but overall I think that is a virtue.

As for production, I have no complaints. The narration was clear, no pronunciation mistakes with tricky Slavic words, and so it faded to the background, allowing one to focus on the book.

Highly recommended.

Great read!!

If you could sum up Revolution 1989 in three words, what would they be?

Fantastic historic book

What did you like best about this story?

Good historic perspective of each different country

Which scene was your favorite?

The whole book is one great read

Exceptional historical read!

Highly recommend this brilliant account of the horrors of communism and the gradual collapse of the systems that purpetrated them.

What an incredible story

I only have the slightest memories of the wall coming down when I was 9 years old. This book tells the rich and incredible story of how it all happened. I am very glad I listened.

Best summary I have seen.

Maxism:
1) Dictatorship by Scientific Marxist socialist experts ruling the State. 2) State ownership of the means of production.

What could possibly go wrong?

"They lie to us. We know they lie to us. They know we know they lie to us. We all go home." To this day people claim to be Marxist/Lenninists presumably ready to break eggs for omlets.

Title should be: Polish Revolution 1989

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The book is a view of events before Soviet Union fall from an author view who lived in Poland it seems. So what you get is really detailed view of events in Poland and Eastern Germany and very high level information of events and characters in Russia where main
events leading to Sovietn Union fall actually happened.
I can say it since I was just a boy growing up in Far East of Russia when perestroika started.
What this book fails to mention is an economin collapse, hyperinflation and default which happened when those "wise leaders" like Gorbachev decided to switch to capitalism economy overnight.
Then again any revolution comes at a cost - I don't see any country in recent years where people became better off after the revolution. Just look at Ukraine.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There are no favorite characters in this story.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Disappointing

What disappointed you about Revolution 1989?

The fall of the Soviet Empire which from this distance seems like it must always have been inevitable, but which at the time surprised just about everyone- what could be more interesting? Just about everything as it turns out.

There was nothing I could point to that was specifically untrue, but I found this book really propaganda-y. I get it, communism is bad, but could the author not have allowed the facts to speak for themselves? Despite multiple attempts I simply could not get past chapter 5 (about 2.5 hours in) my lasting impression of this book is that it was disjointed and somehow desperately dull.

Any additional comments?

For anyone looking for a good Cold War era read I would recommend Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum or the surprisingly engaging The Sword and the Shield by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin as Audible alternatives.

misses a lot

Although interesting as far as it goes, the book does not talk at all about the main event, namely, the fall of the Soviet Union. Instead it only talks about the fall of the Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe. Moreover, although well written it's more of a 'this happened then this happened' kind of journalistic history without any synthesis to explain why it happened.

Should have been titled “ I love Gorby”

Good details and relevant facts, and overall not too shabby. However, too many suppositions by the author which taint the book. The narrative seemed to cross between non-fiction and fiction often. Of course there is that slight bias against American political establishment, specifically the anti- Conservative/Republican, would have been nice to have a neutral perspective. I think the author tried to oversell the key points of the topic by exaggerating his own biases and colorful opinions about various cultures and politicians mentioned in the story.

I’d rather have borrowed it from the local library then spent my credit.

Wanted to hear the end of the USSR

The books is very thorough on the how the satellite states of the USSR fail and have revolutions; however, it doesn’t actually go into Russia after those things happen