Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives

With conflicts brewing between Russia and the United States, the needfor balanced, accessible scholarship that benefits from new materials and criticalperspectives is imperative. In seven lucid, groundbreaking essays, Stephen F. Cohenquestions many conventional assumptions about the course of Soviet history, the fallof communism, and the impact of Russia's policies at home andabroad.Written for specialists and general readers, Cohen'sessays are framed by a chronological narrative that focuses on key turning pointsand lost alternatives. Beginning with Nikolai Bukharin, Stalin's preeminentchallenger and victim, and the unexpected return of millions of survivors ofStalin's terror under Nikita Krushchev, Cohen shows how their tragic fates shapedthe latter-day Soviet Union. Turning to more recent events, Cohen examines thepolitical fates of the Soviet state's leading conservative, Yegor Ligachev, and itsgreatest reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev. Through these figures he raises even moreprovocative issues, including an assertion that the Soviet was capable of reform andthat its breakup wasn't inevitable. Finally and most urgently, Cohen critiques theUnited State's triumphalist policy toward post-Soviet Russia since 1992 and presentsa bold new approach for handling today's resurgent Russia.