Russia's Cold War : from the October Revolution to the fall of the wall / Jonathan Haslam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haslam, Jonathan.

Contributor:

Sternberg, Robert J., Editor.

Sternberg, Karin, 1976- Editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--1917-1945.

Soviet Union.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--1945-1991.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (544 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The phrase "Cold War" was coined by George Orwell in 1945 to describe the impact of the atomic bomb on world politics: "We may be heading not for a general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity." The Soviet Union, he wrote, was "at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of 'cold war' with its neighbors." But as a leading historian of Soviet foreign policy, Jonathan Haslam, makes clear in this groundbreaking book, the epoch was anything but stable, with constant wars, near-wars, and political upheavals on both sides. Whereas the Western perspective on the Cold War has been well documented by journalists and historians, the Soviet side has remained for the most part shrouded in secrecy-until now. Drawing on a vast range of recently released archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and Eastern Europe, Russia's Cold War offers a thorough and fascinating analysis of East-West relations from 1917 to 1989.Far more than merely a straightforward history of the Cold War, this book presents the first account of politics and decision making at the highest levels of Soviet power: how Soviet leaders saw political and military events, what they were trying to accomplish, their miscalculations, and the ways they took advantage of Western ignorance. Russia's Cold War fills a significant gap in our understanding of the most important geopolitical rivalry of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

1. Underlying Antagonisms

2. Ideology Triumphant

3. Cominformity

4. On The Offensive in Asia

5. Thaw

6. Sudden Frost

7. Taking the World to the Brink

8. Détente

9. The Impact of Vietnam

10. Détente Fails

11. The Reagan Presidency

12. Down Comes The Wall

Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613096180

9781283096188

1283096188

9780300168532

0300168535

OCLC:

1024051482