Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics
With a measured mastery, Trenin probes the many aspects of this dilemma, from Russia’s changing relations with its neighbors and the great powers to the effect of the country’s identity crisis on its economy, demographics, and culture.
An entirely new take on the origins of World War I comes as a surprise. If war guilt is to be assigned, this book argues, it should go not only (or even primarily) to Germany -- the long-accepted culprit -- but also to Russia.
Compassionate yet critical, this is the most comprehensive portrait of the morass Soviet leaders got themselves and their army into when they invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.
The book is an excruciating account of how victims (and potential victims) enlarged and sped the killing machine: workers denouncing workers, family members betraying family members, and lovers sacrificing lovers in vain attempts to save themselves, as Stalin and his lieutenants ordered each new wave of purges.
This book is a collective biography that will fascinate its subjects’ grandchildren, to whom the world it depicts will seem like a distant planet.
