• The author's previous book The Gorbachev Factor (OUP, 1996) won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association of the UK for best political science book of the year and the Alec Nove Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies for the best book or article on Communism, Post-Communism or Russia.
• A major new interpretation of one of the key moments in 20th century history
• written by the first Western scholar to highlight the potential importance of Mikhail Gorbachev

Readership: Scholars and students of International Relations, Democratization, Comparative Politics, Russian Studies, East European Studies, World history: postwar, from c 1945.

Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Oxford University, and Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford

"...the book will encourage readers to revive their memories of the excitement of the Gorbachev years and to refine their own opinions on the man himself and his policies." - Paul Dukes History Today

"There are few who can compete with Professor Brown in intensity of attention to Soviet politics and Soviet institutions, in nuanced approach, and in painstaking analysis" - Lilia Shevtsova, Pro et Contra

"Mikhail Gorbachev's most important biographer here passes judgement on the man and the process he unleashed ... The book's first part comprises four pieces written at the time of perestroika, which in retrospect were remarkably perceptive. In the years since, the mounting archival and memoir evidence - and Brown brings much of it to bear - has only strengthened his argument" - Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

"'The real genius of the end of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Archie Brown has been his closest and best commentator.'" - Financial Times

"'The bulk of the book is a necessary reminder of what Mr Gorbachev and perestroika achieved - even if inadvertently. For what, asks Mr Brown, did Mr Gorbachev sacrifice "the boundless authority, the unquestioning obedience, the orchestrated public adulation"? For freedom of speech, freedom of religion, competitive elections and a host of other accomplishments. The author rightly concludes that the "democratic shortcomings of post-Soviet Russia notwithstanding, the country that Gorbachev bequeathed to his successors was freer than at any time in Russian history".'" - The Economist

"Demonstrating his meticulous scholarship and painstaking research, Brown adapts to the Soviet scene the concept of "institutional amphibiousness", by which some parts of the state system can simultaneously work for functions and purposes contradictory to those of the state'" - Times Literary Supplement

"in the 1980s Brown had to field his share of brickbats from those who accused him of wishful thinking about the very existence of serious reformers inside the Soviet establishment. History proved him right, and his critics wrong. Now, as this volume shows, he has the Soviet archives on his side as well" - Mary Dejevsky (The Times Moscow correspondent during perestroika), Oxford Today

Part 1
1: Introduction
Part 2
2: Gorbachev: New Man in the Kremlin
3: The First Phase of Soviet Reform, 1985-86
4: Fundamental Political Change, 1987-89
5: Reconstructing the Soviet Political System
Part 3
6: Institutional Amphibiousness or Civil Society? The Origins and Development of Perestroika
7: The Dismantling of the System and the Disintegration of the State
8: Transnational Influences in the Transition from Communism
9: Ending the Cold War
10: Gorbachev and His Era in Perspective
Index