Product Description

The sudden ending of the Cold War, surely the dominant feature of the second half of the 20th century, continues to be one of the most unexpected and perplexing events of our time. Explanations provided by the winners and losers in the Cold War differ considerably and often contradict each other. Even taken together they do not provide a compelling answer to the key question: why did it happen?

Gorbachev′s Gamble offers a new and more convincing answer to this question by providing the missing link between the internal and external aspects of Gorbachev′s perestroika. Andrei Grachev shows that the radically transformed Soviet foreign policy during the Gorbachev years was an integral part of an ambitious project of internal democratic reform and of the historic opening of Soviet society to the outside world.

Grachev explains the motives and the intentions of the initiators of this project and describes their hopes and their illusions. He recounts the story of the internal debates and struggles in the Kremlin and behind–the–scene decisions that led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break–up of the Warsaw Pact and eventually the demise of the Soviet Union itself.

The book is based on exclusive interviews with the leaders of the Soviet Union including Gorbachev, personal notes and diaries of their assistants and advisers and transcripts of the discussions inside the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee. Together they constitute a multi–voice political confession of a whole generation of decision–makers and opinion leaders of the Soviet Union that enables us better to understand the origin and the breathtaking trajectory of the events that led to the end of the Cold War and the unprecedented transformation of world politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108725 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
"A major contribution to our understanding of the last years of the Soviet Union and to the end of the Cold War."
Australian Journal of Political Science

"The stand–off between Russia and the west over military intervention in Georgia in 2008 raised the spectre of a new cold war between the world′s military and economic powers. The timing of Andrei Grachev′s book on the events that led to the end of the old Cold War, therefore, could not be better. Gorbachev′s Gamble is a sympathetic and detailed analysis of how the last Soviet leader′s ′new political thinking′ brought about the break–up of the Warsaw Pact and of the Soviet Union itself in 1991."
Europe–Asia Studies

"The ultimate, definitive and conclusive account of one of the most transformative periods in modern history. As we continue to be shaped by the consequences of the critical years examined by Grachev, we shall continue to learn from this masterful book."
Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University

"Andrei Grachev, an important member of Gorbachev’s foreign policy team, writes as a participant–observer. His penetrating and well–informed account of the end of the Cold War, as seen from the Soviet side, offers a subtle and persuasive interpretation which will be a valuable corrective to much Western conventional wisdom."
Archie Brown, University of Oxford

From the Back Cover
The sudden ending of the Cold War, surely the dominant feature of the second half of the 20th century, continues to be one of the most unexpected and perplexing events of our time. Explanations provided by the winners and losers in the Cold War differ considerably and often contradict each other. Even taken together they do not provide a compelling answer to the key question: why did it happen?

Gorbachev’s Gamble offers a new and more convincing answer to this question by providing the missing link between the internal and external aspects of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Andrei Grachev shows that the radically transformed Soviet foreign policy during the Gorbachev years was an integral part of an ambitious project of internal democratic reform and of the historic opening of Soviet society to the outside world.

Grachev explains the motives and the intentions of the initiators of this project and describes their hopes and their illusions. He recounts the story of the internal debates and struggles in the Kremlin and behind–the–scene decisions that led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break–up of the Warsaw Pact and eventually the demise of the Soviet Union itself.

The book is based on exclusive interviews with the leaders of the Soviet Union including Gorbachev, personal notes and diaries of their assistants and advisers and transcripts of the discussions inside the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee. Together they constitute a multi–voice political confession of a whole generation of decision–makers and opinion leaders of the Soviet Union that enables us better to understand the origin and the breathtaking trajectory of the events that led to the end of the Cold War and the unprecedented transformation of world politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

About the Author
Andrei Grachev was former political adviser and last official spokesman of Mikhail Gorbachev.

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Customer Reviews

Highly recommended
I came to this book with vivid memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall as a teenager, but little or no other knowledge of the break-up of the Soviet Union, and found this book a riveting read.

It shows Gorbachev's final steps to becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party and concentrates on what he did when he got there. It shows the intellectual origins of the `new thinking', the idea that no one was benefitting from the arms race, it was economically unsustainable from the Soviet point of view, and had to be moderated, if not reversed. This was all tied up with internal reform of the Soviet Union; reform of one had to go hand in hand with the other.

Gorbachev told the world what he believed about the arms race, and thought that his erstwhile political adversaries abroad would take his statements of intent at face value, but after years of political deceit, few people did. His gamble was to agree to, and to implement, grossly asymmetrical arms cuts, including pulling out conventional arms and troops from Europe to the extent that, for the first time in several decades, there were fewer Russian troops in Europe than Western troops.

It deals with other events too, such as the first Gulf War and, naturally, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact they had on progress.

It's written by a former political adviser to and spokesman for Gorbachev, so it's bound to be pro-Gorbachev, and indeed he does come out of it very well, but interestingly it's clear from the book that by the time Germany was rushing towards reunification and the Berlin Wall was coming down Gorbachev had really lost control of events that he had put in train. It seemed that he believed, naively maybe, that people would still want to be part of the USSR after the end of the Cold War: he was clearly wrong!

This is a hugely well-informed book, well-written and a fascinating read.