The Second Russian Revolution: The Struggle for Power in the Kremlin - Hardcover

Roxburgh, Angus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0886876834 ISBN 13: 9780886876838

Publisher: Pharos Books, 1992

Synopsis

Not since the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar in 1917 has the country once known as the Soviet Union seen such revolutionary changes. The Communist Party has been swept out of power, very little remains of the Soviet-backed system that once dominated Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union itself has disintegrated into a loose federation of republics.
It was a revolution that began the day aging Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko died, clearing the way for Mikhail Gorbachev to take control.
Through hundreds of interviews with top Soviet officials, Angus Roxburgh has pieced together an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes account of the Gorbachev years. For the first time, every key figure involved--from Boris Yeltsin to former prime minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, as well as every other top official, reformer and hard-liner alike--tell of the conspiracies, backroom dealings, and political infighting surrounding Gorbachev's rise to power and his attempts to reform the country. Their reflections are surprisingly candid and provide much new detail on this crucial period in history.
Here are details and events never before revealed outside the Politburo: how, as early as 1983, the dying Soviet leader Yuri Andropov had actually chosen Gorbachev to succeed him, but then Brezhnev's old cronies conspired to get Chernenko elected instead; details of how, on the night of March 10, 1985, Gorbachev came to be selected as leader; how hard-line deputy Yegor Ligachev, backed by the Communist Party, repeatedly tried to sabotage perestroika; how maverick Boris Yeltsin became the thorn in Gorbachev's side, and how, backed by the people, he began to emerge on top of Gorbachev; and how and why the attempted coup of August 1991 came about.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pharos Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0886876834
• ISBN 13: 9780886876838
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1