The rise and fall of the Soviet Empire
By: Raymond Pearson.
Edition: 2nd ed.
Series: Studies in contemporary history; Studies in contemporary history (Palgrave (Firm))
Publisher: Palgrave
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
Subjects: Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.; Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1945-1991.
Description: "The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire describes and explains the creation, maintenance and eventual demise of the Soviet regime across post-1945 eastern Europe. Balancing internal factors such as resilient nationalism against external factors such as America's acceleration of the arms race, Raymond Pearson sets the so-called 'Soviet Empire' within the broader context of global imperialism and decolonisation.

Full coverage is also given to the dramatic episodes of eastern European dissent and the chequered career of this ostensibly monolithic 'Soviet Empire'.".

"This revised and updated second edition features an expanded final chapter on the 'Last Empire', assessing not only its patent strengths and hidden weaknesses, but also its much publicised vices and rarely acknowledged virtues. New documentation that has only become available in the last five years has been incorporated to provide a fuller retrospective historical judgement on the Soviet regime across eastern Europe."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-204) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1 Yalta 1945: Liberation or Occupation? 1; title: The First World War and the Partition of Eastern Europe 2; title: Interwar Soviet Europe 6; title: Interwar Versailles Europe 9; title: The Second World War and the Repartition of Eastern Europe 16; title: Operation Barbarossa 19; title: The End of the Nazi 'New Order' 22; title: 2 Belgrade 1948: Cold War Empire 25; title: Military Occupation 25; title: Economic Exploitation 28; title: Strategic Insulation 32; title: Political Subordination 37; title: Ideological Conversion 42; title: The Newest Empire 45; title: 3 Budapest 1956: Thaw and Refreeze 50; title: From Stalin to Khrushchev 52; title: Polish October, Hungarian November 58; title: Reaction and Readjustment 63; title: Hollow Victory 69; title: 4 Prague 1968: Spring and Fall 71; title: Return to De-Stalinisation 71; title: From Khrushchev to Kosygin 75; title: 'Socialism with a Human Face' 79; title: Brezhnev and 'Normalisation' 86; title: Steady State 91; title: 5 Gdansk 1980: Stagnation to Solidarity 96; title: Empire on the Slide 99; title: Poland's 'Self-Limiting Revolution' 101; title: 1980,1968 and 1956 105; title: Empire in the Red 109; title: Grey Eminences 113; title: 6 Berlin 1989: Decolonisation of the; title: Outer Empire 116; title: Gorbachev and Glasnost 116; title: The Impotence of the Powerful 121; title: The Power of the Powerless 128; title: People-Power 131; title: Beating Retreat 134; title: Landslide and Timeslip 139; title: 7 Moscow 1991: Disintegration of the Inner Empire 143; title: Soviet Disunion 144; title: Imperial Implosion 152; title: Conspiracy and Climax 160; title: Capitulation and Closure 164; title: 8 The Last Empire? 166; title: Designations and Definitions 167; title: Rising and Falling 174; title: Weaknesses and Strengths 178; title: Vices and Virtues 185; title: Retrospective and Perspective 192.