Gorbachev

by Gorbachev, Mikhail

• ISBN13: 9780231115155
• ISBN10: 0231115156
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Here is the whole sweep of the Soviet experiment and experience as told by its last steward. Drawing on his own experience, rich archival material, and a keen sense of history and politics, Mikhail Gorbachev speaks his mind on a range of subjects concerning Russia's past, present, and future place in the world. Here is Gorbachev on the October Revolution, Gorbachev on the Cold War, and Gorbachev on key figures such as Lenin, Stalin, and Yeltsin.The book begins with a look back at 1917. While noting that tsarist Russia was not as backward as it is often portrayed, Gorbachev argues that the Bolshevik Revolution was inevitable and that it did much to modernize Russia. He strongly argues that the Soviet Union had a positive influence on social policy in the West, while maintaining that the development of socialism was cut short by Stalinist totalitarianism. In the next section, Gorbachev considers the fall of the USSR. What were the goals of perestroika? How did such a vast superpower disintegrate so quickly? From the awakening of ethnic tensions, to the inability of democrats to unite, to his own attempts to reform but preserve the union, Gorbachev retraces those fateful days and explains the origins of Russia's present crisis.But Gorbachev does not just train his critical eye on the past. He lays out a blueprint for where Russia needs to go in the next century, suggesting ways to strengthen the federation and achieve meaningful economic and political reforms. In the final section of the book, Gorbachev examines the "new thinking" in foreign policy that helped to end the Cold War and shows how such approaches could help resolve a range of current crises, including NATO expansion, the role of the UN, the fate of nuclear weapons, and environmental problems.Gorbachev: On My Country and the Worldreveals the unique vision of a man who was a powerful actor on the world stage and remains a keen observer of Russia's experience in the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and President from 1989 to 1991, currently heads the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow and lectures widely. He is also the author of Perestroika and Soviet-American Relations, The Search for a New Beginning: Developing a New Civilization, and The August Coup: The Truth and the Lessons.

Table of Contents

PART ONE The October Revolution: Its Sense and Significance	1	(80)
A Blunder of History, Accident, Or Necessity?	3	(10)
Was Socialism Built in the Soviet Union?	13	(12)
Let's Not Oversimplify! A Balance Sheet of the Soviet Years	25	(13)
October and the World	38	(9)
One More Balance Sheet: Something Worth Thinking About	47	(8)
October and Perestroika	55	(12)
Does Socialism Have a Future?	67	(10)
Summing Up	77	(4)
PART TWO The Union Could Have Been Preserved	81	(88)
A Tragic Turn of Events	83	(11)
Tbilisi...Baku...Vilnius	94	(11)
Toward a New Union Treaty	105	(13)
Referendum on the Union	118	(16)
The Coup: A Stab in the Back---and the Intrigues of Yeltsin	134	(15)
The Belovezh Accord: Dissolution of the USSR	149	(13)
What Lies Ahead?	162	(7)
PART THREE The New Thinking: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow	169	(110)
The Sources of the New Thinking	171	(8)
The Very First Steps	179	(8)
The Conception (1985--1991)	187	(7)
Overcoming the Cold War	194	(14)
The Transitional World Order	208	(7)
The New Thinking in the Post-Confrontational World	215	(8)
The Challenge of Globalization	223	(8)
The Challenge of Diversity	231	(9)
The Challenge of Global Problems	240	(8)
The Challenge of Power Politics	248	(13)
The Challenge of Democracy	261	(7)
The Challenge of Universal Human Values	268	(7)
The Beginning of History?	275	(4)
Index	279