The dream that failed : reflections on the Soviet Union /
Laqueur, Walter, 1921-2018.
The dream that failed : reflections on the Soviet Union / Walter Laqueur. - New York : Oxford University Press, 1995. - 1 online resource (ix, 231 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-225) and index.
The age of enthusiasm -- 1917: The Russia we lost? -- The fall of the Soviet Union -- Totalitarianism -- Sovietology: an epitaph (I) -- Sovietology: an epitaph (II) -- How many victims? -- The nationalist revival? -- East Germany: a case study.
Use copy
The Dream that Failed offers an authoritative assessment of the Soviet era - from the triumph of Lenin to the fall of Gorbachev. In recent years, decades of conventional wisdom about the U.S.S.R. have been swept away, while a flood of evidence from Russian archives demands new thinking about old assumptions. This inquiry is conducted on the grand scale: the author explains how the Bolsheviks won the struggle for power in 1917; how they captured the commitment of a young generation of Russians; why the idealism faded as Soviet power grew; how the system ultimately collapsed; and why Western experts have been wrong about the Communist system. Thoughtful and incisive, Laqueur reflects on the early enthusiasm of foreign observers and Bolshevik revolutionaries for the new Soviet order, then takes a piercing look at the totalitarian nature of the regime. He demonstrates how Communist society stagnated during the 1960s and '70s, while the economy wobbled to the brink; how Western observers, from academic experts to CIA analysts, made wildly optimistic estimates of Moscow's economic and political strength. Just weeks before the U.S.S.R. disappeared from the earth, some scholars were confidently predicting the survival of the Soviet Union. But in underscoring the rot and repression, he also notes that the Communist state did not necessarily have to fall when it did, and he examines the many factors behind the collapse (such as ethnic nationalism and the rigors of an accelerated arms race during the 1980s). Many of these same problems continued to shape the future of Russia and other successor states, and a second coming of national Communism, albeit in a different guise, cannot be ruled out. Only now, in the rubble of this lost empire, is it possible to gain a deeper understanding of the Soviet regime, its early achievements, its crimes and its ultimate disaster. In The Dream that Failed, the result of years of research and reflection, Walter Laqueur sheds fresh light on a central episode in our turbulent century.
Electronic reproduction.
[S.l.] :
HathiTrust Digital Library,
2011.
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212
English.
9780198025047 (electronic bk.) 0198025041 (electronic bk.) 9786610760855 6610760853 (pbk.) (alk. paper) (alk. paper) 1280760850 9781280760853
MYILIB_CUp
HISTORY.
Philosophy.
Politische Theorie
Politische Philosophie
Soviet Union--History.
Soviet Union--History--Philosophy.
URSS--Histoire.
URSS--Histoire--Philosophie.
Soviet Union.
Sowjetunion
URSS--Histoire.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics History, 1917-
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
History.
DK266 / .L336 1995eb
947.084
The dream that failed : reflections on the Soviet Union / Walter Laqueur. - New York : Oxford University Press, 1995. - 1 online resource (ix, 231 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-225) and index.
The age of enthusiasm -- 1917: The Russia we lost? -- The fall of the Soviet Union -- Totalitarianism -- Sovietology: an epitaph (I) -- Sovietology: an epitaph (II) -- How many victims? -- The nationalist revival? -- East Germany: a case study.
Use copy
The Dream that Failed offers an authoritative assessment of the Soviet era - from the triumph of Lenin to the fall of Gorbachev. In recent years, decades of conventional wisdom about the U.S.S.R. have been swept away, while a flood of evidence from Russian archives demands new thinking about old assumptions. This inquiry is conducted on the grand scale: the author explains how the Bolsheviks won the struggle for power in 1917; how they captured the commitment of a young generation of Russians; why the idealism faded as Soviet power grew; how the system ultimately collapsed; and why Western experts have been wrong about the Communist system. Thoughtful and incisive, Laqueur reflects on the early enthusiasm of foreign observers and Bolshevik revolutionaries for the new Soviet order, then takes a piercing look at the totalitarian nature of the regime. He demonstrates how Communist society stagnated during the 1960s and '70s, while the economy wobbled to the brink; how Western observers, from academic experts to CIA analysts, made wildly optimistic estimates of Moscow's economic and political strength. Just weeks before the U.S.S.R. disappeared from the earth, some scholars were confidently predicting the survival of the Soviet Union. But in underscoring the rot and repression, he also notes that the Communist state did not necessarily have to fall when it did, and he examines the many factors behind the collapse (such as ethnic nationalism and the rigors of an accelerated arms race during the 1980s). Many of these same problems continued to shape the future of Russia and other successor states, and a second coming of national Communism, albeit in a different guise, cannot be ruled out. Only now, in the rubble of this lost empire, is it possible to gain a deeper understanding of the Soviet regime, its early achievements, its crimes and its ultimate disaster. In The Dream that Failed, the result of years of research and reflection, Walter Laqueur sheds fresh light on a central episode in our turbulent century.
Electronic reproduction.
[S.l.] :
HathiTrust Digital Library,
2011.
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212
English.
9780198025047 (electronic bk.) 0198025041 (electronic bk.) 9786610760855 6610760853 (pbk.) (alk. paper) (alk. paper) 1280760850 9781280760853
MYILIB_CUp
HISTORY.
Philosophy.
Politische Theorie
Politische Philosophie
Soviet Union--History.
Soviet Union--History--Philosophy.
URSS--Histoire.
URSS--Histoire--Philosophie.
Soviet Union.
Sowjetunion
URSS--Histoire.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics History, 1917-
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
History.
DK266 / .L336 1995eb
947.084