Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991 - Softcover

Keep, John L. H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192803190 ISBN 13: 9780192803191

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

In 1945 the USSR was at the height of its international power and prestige, but years of prolonged hardship were to follow as Stalinist dictatorship was ruthlessly imposed. Since 1988 the mantle of Soviet secrecy has begun to lift, allowing historians access to some of the country's vast archival resources. Last of the Empires explores the central currents of political, cultural, social, and economic development running through 56 crucial years of Soviet rule, enabling us to gain a greater understanding of what has been called one of the most tragic experiences in human history.

About this title

About the Author:

John Keep is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Toronto.

Review:

`Review from previous edition Written in a clear, scholarly but penetrable style, it provides an abundance of information in a form that is accessible to anybody who wants or needs to remind himself of the chronology and content of those tumultuous years in the Soviet Union. It incorporates
much of the new information that is emerging in post-communist, post-Soviet Russia, as formerly top-secret archives are opened to Russian and western scrutiny.'
Economist

`A shrewd, well-sourced history of the Soviet Union ... [Keep's] fluent narrative heeds murmurs from below as well as diktats from above.'
New Statesman and Society

`It is as fortunate as it is productive that Keep is a distinguished and vastly experienced historian of Russia in its several phases, that he should apply the rigour of exacting scholarship and the advantage of perspective to the death of a system whose antecedents and birth he had earlier
chronicled. The temperate, scholarly analysis of Last of the Empires provides an exhaustive explanation for this complex, protracted tragedy whose consequences are yet fully to unfold.'
Times Higher Education Supplement

`Last of the Empires is filled with interest information gathered from a very broad range of sources which Keep recounts and analyses in a thoroughly professional manner ... judicious and well-informed work.'
Times Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0192803190
• ISBN 13: 9780192803191
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496