The last empire [electronic resource] : the final days of the Soviet Union / Serhii Plokhy.
2014
DK286 .P57 2014eb
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Title
The last empire [electronic resource] : the final days of the Soviet Union / Serhii Plokhy.
ISBN
9780465061990 electronic book
9780465056965 hardcover
9780465056965 hardcover
Published
New York, New York : Basic Books, 2014.
Copyright
©2014
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xxii, 489 pages) : illustrations, maps
Call Number
DK286 .P57 2014eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
947.085/4
Summary
"On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades - with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world. As prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals in The Last Empire, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. On the contrary, American leaders dreaded the possibility that the Soviet Union - weakened by infighting and economic turmoil - might suddenly crumble, throwing all of Eurasia into chaos. Bush was firmly committed to supporting his ally and personal friend Gorbachev, and remained wary of nationalist or radical leaders such as recently elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Fearing what might happen to the large Soviet nuclear arsenal in the event of the union's collapse, Bush stood by Gorbachev as he resisted the growing independence movements in Ukraine, Moldova, and the Caucasus. Plokhy's detailed, authoritative account shows that it was only after the movement for independence of the republics had gained undeniable momentum on the eve of the Ukrainian vote for independence that fall that Bush finally abandoned Gorbachev to his fate. Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union's final months and argues that the key to the Soviet collapse was the inability of the two largest Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine, to agree on the continuing existence of a unified state. By attributing the Soviet collapse to the impact of American actions, US policy makers overrated their own capacities in toppling and rebuilding foreign regimes. Not only was the key American role in the demise of the Soviet Union a myth, but this misplaced belief has guided - and haunted - American foreign policy ever since"-- Jacket.
Note
Includes index.
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Description based on print version record.
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Last empire.
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Table of Contents
The last summit. Meeting in Moscow ; The party crasher ; Chicken Kiev
The tanks of August. The prisoner of the Crimea ; The Russian rebel ; Freedom's victory
A countercoup. The resurgence of Russia ; Independent Ukraine ; Saving the empire
Soviet disunion. Washington's dilemma ; The Russian ark ; The survivor
Vox populi. Anticipation ; The Ukrainian referendum ; The Slavic trinity
Farewell to the empire. Out of the woods ; The birth of Eurasia ; Christmas in Moscow.
The tanks of August. The prisoner of the Crimea ; The Russian rebel ; Freedom's victory
A countercoup. The resurgence of Russia ; Independent Ukraine ; Saving the empire
Soviet disunion. Washington's dilemma ; The Russian ark ; The survivor
Vox populi. Anticipation ; The Ukrainian referendum ; The Slavic trinity
Farewell to the empire. Out of the woods ; The birth of Eurasia ; Christmas in Moscow.