Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000, (Paperback)

from patrickgarson

Kotkin has written a lively monograph about the (in his opinion) continuing-to-collapse Soviet Union. It fills a somewhat weird niche as an accessible academic book; those who know much about Russian history will find the broad thesis unsurprising, and those who don't know much about Russian hist...

from stillatim

Very readable account that is focused almost entirely on Russia (I had hoped for more on the other republics). Kotkin is perhaps too keen to avoid the idiocies of right (THE EVIL EMPIRE CAN NEVER REFORM AND MUST BE DESTROYED!!!!) and left (AMERICAN ECONOMISTS LED DIRECTLY TO RUSSIAN OLIGARCHY!!!!...

from BrianHostad

This is a quick and easy read focussing more on the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 80s/early 90s and the progress of Russia thereafter. It doesn't do that much detail and is best viewed as an overview/introduction for someone wanting a to know the basics.