1st Edition

Gorbachev The Man and the System

By John Farrar Copyright 1989
    480 Pages
    by Routledge

    480 Pages
    by Routledge

    Gorbachev: The Man and the System portrays Gorbachev's rise to power and his tenure in office against the background of a period of critical change and development in the Soviet system. The research is primarily based on Soviet materials, supplemented and critically compared with a wide range of Western press and academic studies. Both Zemtsov and Farrar bring to the analysis their own experiences, acquired under different circumstances.Part I focuses on a selected chronology of significant events from Gorbachev's assumption of power in March 1985 to June 1987. The authors examine leadership and personnel changes, the economy, the society, and the arts. Part II takes a look at foreign policies by examining: relations with the United States and the industrialized West; arms control policy; relations with Eastern Europe; relations with the People's Republic of China; and relations with the third world. Part III explores Gorbachev's military policies. Part IV concludes with the authors' assessment of the future. Included in this book are appendices on: changes in the Council of Ministers, Ministers, and Chairmen of State Committees; Politburo and central committee meetings since Gorbachev became General Secretary, through June 1987; and announced changes in the Diplomatic Corps and Foreign Ministry as reported in the Soviet press. The hardcover edition of this book was published in Gorbachev's early years. It thus represents an early assessment, and as such a document of events at the time they occurred. Renewed interest in communism, and in the dissolution of the Soviet Union make this paperback edition timely.

    1: A New Leadership for Old Problems and Future Challenges; I: Internal Politics; Selected Chronology of Significant Internal Developments and Events March 1985 through June 1987; 2: New Wine in Old (?) Bottles: Leadership and Personnel Changes; 3: To Build a Better Mousetrap: The Economy; 4: Images versus Reality: The Society and the Style; 5: Is the Media the Message? Glasnost and the Arts; II: Foreign Policies; 6: Happy Days Can Be Here Again: Relations with the United States and the Industrialized West; Selected East-West Chronology; 7: Scorpions in a Bottle: Arms Control Policy (Part One); 8: Arms Control Policy (Part Two) Reykjavik and Beyond: The Pendulum Swings; Selected Arms Control Chronology; 9: The Burdens and Benefits of Empire: Relations with Eastern Europe; Selected Soviet-Eastern European Chronology; 10: The “Mongol Hordes”: Relations with the People’s Republic of China; Selected Sino-Soviet Chronology; 11: Winning the Hearts and Minds: Relations with the Third World; Selected Soviet-Third World Chronology, from March 1985 *; III: Military Policies; 12: The Metal Eaters: The Armed Forces and Soviet Military Doctrine; IV: Conclusions; 13: The Emperor’s New Clothes: What the Record Reveals; 14: The Past Is but Prologue: Projections for the Future

    Biography

    John Farrar