A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union-showing how Gorbachev's misguided reforms led to its demise
"A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart."-Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times
"[A] masterly analysis."-Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal
In 1945 the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong with five thousand nuclear-tipped missiles and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the twentieth century.
Thirty years on, Vladislav Zubok offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Instead, Zubok reveals how Gorbachev's misguided reforms, intended to modernize and democratize the Soviet Union, deprived the government of resources and empowered separatism. Collapse sheds new light on Russian democratic populism, the Baltic struggle for independence, the crisis of Soviet finances-and the fragility of authoritarian state power.
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"A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart."-Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times
"A compelling account. . . . [A] masterly analysis."-Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal
"An excellent study. . . . There have been several books over the past quarter century that have covered this territory. Zubok's is the most comprehensive, detailed and original."-Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times
"This new take on the unexpected collapse of the Soviet empire, by an eminent Soviet-born historian, zooms in on the economic failings and pressures that drove the collapse. . . . Zubok depicts a fateful coalition of idealists, grifters, and thugs that ended up shaping the disastrous 1990s."-James Palmer, Foreign Policy
"Thoroughly and deeply researched and emotionally engaging for the reader, it is difficult to envisage how there could be a better book on the subject."-Geoffrey Roberts, Irish Times
"[A] remarkably reliable narrative, effectively covering two years, 1990 and 1991. [Zubok's] exactitude punctures many a myth, especially on the economy, as he sifts an immense body of research to discover, among other things, that egregious financial mismanagement, not excessive defence outlays, proved fatal."-Stephen Kotkin, Times Literary Supplement
"[Zubok's] masterpiece, Collapse, is a devastating analysis of the reasons Gorbachev's reforms failed."-Perry Anderson, London Review of Books
"An impressive history."-Literary Review of Canada
"The first comprehensive political history of the Gorbachev years to be based almost exclusively on original (mostly Russian-language) archival sources. . . . Zubok makes the most convincing case to date for considering seriously 'the decisive and implacable role of money in the Soviet demise.'"-Yana Skorobogatov, Russian Review
"No book will likely be produced soon that matches Zubok's in detail, power, and depth in marshalling the evidence. This book is a central, indispensable work on the end of the USSR."-Canadian-American Slavic Studies Review
"No book will likely be produced soon that matches Zubok's in detail, power, and depth in marshalling the evidence. This book is a central, indispensable work on the end of the USSR."-Bradley D. Woodworth, Canadian-American Slavic Studies
"Skillfully written. . . . The author presents the reader with the knowledge that was in front of the actors at the time, not with a 20/20 knowledge of the events that followed."-Vladislav M. Zubok, Brave New Europe
"Zubok . . . has cutting insights on the 'who' and the 'what' and the 'where' and the 'when.'"-Gabriel Gavin, Reaction
"Such a huge event in world history as the collapse of the Soviet Union will undoubtedly be retold. When it is, Zubok's impressive book will have to be consulted."-James Rodgers, History Today
"The author seems to have read practically everything currently available, both published and unpublished, of relevance to his subject. . . . [Zubok] writes very stylish and idiomatic English, which makes his work a real pleasure to read."-Martin Dewhirst, East-West Review
"Excellent. . . . Zubok's lengthy and detailed study is easy to read. It is crafted with a strong narrative approach to relate an unfolding drama. This not only keeps the reader's attention, but also provides a wealth of detail and analysis that can only be undertaken by someone with Zubok's lifetime of work on the subject."-William B. Whisenhunt, LSE Review of Books
"Zubok's book is important and deserves broad attention. It provides an excellent basis for the discussion of the collapse, necessary to understand how it affects politics and our life in Europe even today."-Stephan Merl, Journal of Contemporary History
"Collapse, Vladislav Zubok's excellent and comprehensive account of the decline and fall of the USSR . . . has provided the best source available in English on how and why things turned out the way they did."-Francis King, European History Quarterly
"With its engaging style and unmatched wealth of sources, this volume is bound to remain the work of reference for years to come."-Kaspar Pucek, SEER
"Collapse . . . is a work of outstanding richness and novelty. No matter how familiar you are with the last days of the USSR there is something in this book that you do not know."-Neil Robinson, Society
"The first comprehensive political history of the Gorbachev years to be based almost exclusively on original (mostly Russian-language) archival sources. . . . Zubok makes the most convincing case to date for considering seriously 'the decisive and implacable role of money in the Soviet demise.'"-Yana Skorobogatov, Russian Review
"Zubok has studied various sources and linked many events into a master narrative of a steady collapse of the world's second power produced by its domestic forces. Collapse should be a standard text for generations of students."-Ivan Kurilla, Journal of Cold War Studies
"Zubok provides a compelling analysis of Gorbachev's perestroika."-Jianyong Yue, LSE Review of Books
"Vladislav Zubok was a witness to the end of the Soviet Union, and with this impressive book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, he has become one of, if not the, leading historians of its downfall."-Norman M. Naimark, H-Diplo
Finalist for the 2022 Cundill History Prize
Winner of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize, sponsored by ASEEES
"As lucid as it is even-handed, this book will become the new standard for anyone seeking to make sense of the chaos, optimism and foolishness that led to the end of Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts at reform and the downfall of the Soviet Union."-Mark Galeotti, author of A Short History of Russia
"A drama of epic proportions, the Soviet collapse never looked so contingent on human courage and follies, accidents and missed opportunities, as in this book. . . . The best narrative of the Soviet Union's end we have so far."-Vladimir Pechatnov, coeditor of The Kremlin Letters
"This is a deeply researched indictment of Mikhail Gorbachev's timidity and mercurial policies that backfired. Zubok invokes George Kennan's hope at the dawn of the Cold War that the USSR would experience 'gradual mellowing.' Instead, Russia at the turn of the twenty-first century was ripe for the rise of Putin."-Strobe Talbott, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and author of The Great Experiment
"A deeply researched, gripping account of the final Soviet unravelling: Gorbachev's growing weakness, infighting among his opponents, breakaways to independence by the USSR's constituent republics, including Russia itself, all in the face of growing reluctance of the Bush administration and the Western alliance to help Gorbachev salvage a democratic union."-William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, and of Gorbachev: His Life and Times
"In this provocative, deeply-researched retelling of Mikhail Gorbachev's turbulent six years in the Kremlin, Zubok challenges the conventional wisdom that the USSR was destined to collapse. He attributes the demise to Gorbachev's ideological messianism, his failed reforms and repeated policy zig-zags. A must-read for those seeking to understand how a nuclear superpower could have imploded peacefully-and why today's Russian leaders are so determined to restore Russia's great power status."-Angela Stent, author Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest
Vladislav M. Zubok is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of A Failed Empire, Zhivago's Children, and The Idea of Russia. He is a finalist for the 2022 Cundill History Prize.
