The Gorbachev Factor

`To understand this singular man, the reader can do no better than to turn to Archie Brown's astute and lucid book. There have been several excellent works on Mr Gorbachev ... but none examines the subject as thoroughly as this volume ... a rich study, as impressive in its sweep as in its details.' Abraham Brumberg, New York Times `Archie Brown's book is not only a richly researched, easily readable biography of Gorbachev himself. It should be studied at once in every diplomatic service worthy of the name, starting with our own Foreign Office.' Michael Foot, Evening Standard `Archie Brown has mastered the material and met the people ... he writes with a historical perspective unavailable to authors of the instant biographies which appeared while Gorbachev was in power.' Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times `Archie Brown's closely reasoned book ... makes a better case for Gorbachev's record as a reformer than Gorbachev's own memoirs ... the most thorough exposition of Gorbachev's domestic political record yet to appear.' Jack F. Matlock, Jr, New York Review of Books `This Oxford don, for years one of the world's most talented Kremlinologists, has already found the memoirs, documents and interviews that allow him to provide a remarkably detailed and authoritative account of the key moments in Gorbachev's career.' Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post `It is hard to come away from this admirable book without an affection for Gorbachev's insistence on peaceful change, his willingness to let Eastern Europe go and his determination to nurture a pluralist culture.' Nick Cohen, Observer `Brown's latest book is the product of many years of intensive research: it proves to be the most detailed and revealing study of the man who revolutionised the USSR. Excellent.' Good Book Guide

Table of Contents:
Introduction The Making of a Reformist General Secretary In the Portals of Power The Power of Ideas and the Power of Appointment Gorbachev and Economic Reform Gorbachev and Political Transformation Gorbachev and Foreign Policy The National Question, the Coup, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union Conclusions

About the Author :
Archie Brown is Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford and Sub-Warden of St Antony's College where he has been a Fellow since 1971. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991. Professor Brown is the author of numerous publications on Soviet and Russian politics. His more recent works (as editor and major contributor) include The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Former Soviet Union (1994), New Thinking in Soviet Politics (1992), The Soviet Union: A Biographical Dictionary (1990), and Political Leadership in the Soviet Union (1989).

Review :
`This book is perhaps the most eloquent statement to date of an alternative view: that peaceful change was possible, that it was taking place, and that it was underpinned by a philosophy that, by late 1989, was social democratic in its inspiration.' International Affairs Archie Brown provides a needed reminder of the tensions, excitement, and high drama of the fast-paced perestroika years. Exhaustive and carefully grounded in an impressive diversity of sources (with more than 70 pages of detailed notes and supporting documentation), this volume provides an analysis that will prove to be among the most definitive when future students of politics turn to the final years of the Soviet system. John P. Willerton, American Political Science Review The most fundamental of all the books on perestroika... Archie Brown's book by no means ends the discussion about Gorbachev and perestroika, but raises it to a new and higher professional level. Sergei Peregudov, Polis (Moscow) Brown's closely reasoned book... makes a better case for Gorbachev's record as a reformer than Gorbachev's own memoirs... the most thorough exposition of Gorbachev's domestic political record yet to appear. Jack F. Matlock, Fr., New York Review of Books To understand this singular man, the reader can do no better than to turn to Archie Brown's astute and lucid book. [No other] examines the subject as thoroughly as this volume... A rich study, as impressive in its sweep as in its details. Abraham Brumberg, New York Times The fullest and most objective analysis of the perestroika period in Western scholarly literature. Georgy Shakhnazarov, Svobodnaya mysl (Moscow) 'The Gorbachev Factor is a well documented and scholarly study which will stand the test of time. But it also has a rare immediacy, since Brown succeeds in recreating the excitement of the moment. Margot Light, Millennium `Supported as it is by some formidable scholarship, Brown's interpretation of the early years, at least, is powerfully persuasive. This, at any rate, is the best-informed account in English of the evolution of Gorbachev's political views and strategies between 1985 and 1989.' Times Literary Supplement `Archie Brown has been able to take account of the wealth of detail, particularly memoir evidence and interviews with many of perestroika's participants, which previous studies could not. The end result is an elegant and authoritiative account.' Matthew Wyman, University of Keele, Political Studies, Vol 45, No. 1, March '97 `Archie Brown has written a book which fully reflects his expertise, knowledge and scholarship; and whose argument, content and sophistication are quite outstanding ... the balance between Gorbachev's success and failure is not entirely positive ... Archie Brown's book makes a major contribution to evaluating that balance. It deserves to be widely read.' John Wigley, The Haberdashers' Aske's School, Elstree, Talking Politics `The most fundamental of all the books on perestroika.' Sergei Peregudov, Polis: Politicheskie issledovaniya (Moscow) `The Gorbachev Factor is a well documented and scholarly study which will stand the test of time. But it also has a rare immediacy, since Brown succeeds in recreating the excitement of the moment.' Margot Light, Millennium: Journal of International Studies `The fullest and most objective analysis of the perestroika period in Western scholarly literature ... an attempt to answer the question, what can a reformer achieve and where is the limit of his possibilities. From this point of view the monograph is not so much a historical study as a work of theory and political science.' Georgy Shakhnazarov, Svobodnaya mysl (Moscow) `Archie Brown's long-awaited work has been very well worth the wait. Here at last we have a book which takes the study of Gorbachev and his era out of the quicksands of politics and sets it on a firm scholarly basis ... this distinguished book casts a flood of light on how the man who toppled the nomenklatura with such dexterity and such aplomb in the end dug his own career grave as well.' John Gooding, History