Autopsy for an Empire : The Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime - Hardcover

Volkogonov, Dmitri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684834200 ISBN 13: 9780684834207

Publisher: Free Press, 1998

Synopsis

A complete history of the seven men who led the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 is based on unprecedented access to Soviet archives and reveals exactly what occurred behind the scenes during every major event in Soviet history. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

In accordance with his belief that "it is often easier to become acquainted with the history of a period if it is seen through the lives of individuals," Dmitri Volkogonov's last book before his 1995 death addresses the lives of the seven men who ruled the Soviet Union during its seven decades of existence. Making full use of the access granted to him as a high-ranking officer of the Soviet Army (and later as military advisor to Boris Yeltsin) to the secret archives of the Communist Party, he amplifys and expands upon the themes of his full length biographies of Lenin and Stalin, then proceeds to take on their successors up to Mikhail Gorbachev. With painstaking details drawn from a true insider's perspective, he recreates both the stagnation of the Soviet bureaucracy and the collapse set in motion by perestroika. "Perhaps the only thing I achieved in this life," Volkogonov wrote, "was to break with the faith I had held for so long." That is untrue; he also brilliantly chronicled how that faith came to impose itself upon an entire society. Autopsy of an Empire is a fitting conclusion to that legacy.

About the Author:

The Editor of the" Encyclopedia," Harold Shukman, is University Lecturer in Modern Russian History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Antony's College. His books include "Lenin and the Russian Revolution" and "Lenin's Path to Power." He has edited and translated the memoirs of Andrei Gromyko, novels by Anatoly Rybakov, as well as plays by Isaac Babel and Evgeny Shvarts, biographies of Stalin and Lenin by Dmitri Volkogonov, and most recently he edited a collection of articles on Stalin's generals. He is the General Editor of Longman's multi-volume "History of Russia."

The Editor of the" Encyclopedia," Harold Shukman, is University Lecturer in Modern Russian History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Antony's College. His books include "Lenin and the Russian Revolution" and "Lenin's Path to Power." He has edited and translated the memoirs of Andrei Gromyko, novels by Anatoly Rybakov, as well as plays by Isaac Babel and Evgeny Shvarts, biographies of Stalin and Lenin by Dmitri Volkogonov, and most recently he edited a collection of articles on Stalin's generals. He is the General Editor of Longman's multi-volume "History of Russia."

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0684834200
• ISBN 13: 9780684834207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 608