Revolution 1989 The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Audible Audio Edition) Victor Sebestyen Paul Hecht Recorded Books Books
Download As PDF : Revolution 1989 The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Audible Audio Edition) Victor Sebestyen Paul Hecht Recorded Books Books
Revolution 1989 by British journalist Victor Sebestyen is a comprehensive and revealing account of those dizzying days that toppled Soviet tyranny and changed the World. For more than 40 years, communism held eight European nations in its iron fist. Yet by the end of 1989, all of these nations had thrown off communism, declared independence, and embarked on the road to democracy.
Revolution 1989 The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Audible Audio Edition) Victor Sebestyen Paul Hecht Recorded Books Books
This book is subtitled "the fall of the Sovjet empire"- which may sound a bit melodramatic. But it is, in fact, hard to overstate the magnitude and drama of the change that occurred in the pivotal year of 1989 when the six countries of eastern Europe in the Sovjet block one by one replaced their single-party communist systems with multi-party democracy, cut their allegiances to Moscow and the Warsaw pact, and embraced western style market-capitalism, social democracy, the European Union, and NATO.In this book, Viktor Sebestyen, known from the acclaimed "Twelve Days" about the Hungarian uprising of 1956, takes us through the decade and a half preceding the year 1989. Chapter by chapter the book moves back and forth through the six countries under Sovjet dominion: Eastern Germany, Poland, Chechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, providing us glimpses of those countries' unique histories and the manner in which they ended up being Sovjet vassals, the pivotal events in each of these countries that would have major repercussions - sometimes years later - such as the election of Polish pope John Paul II, and up until when, finally, the actual mostly peaceful overthrow of the communists' reign took place. Naturally, there is attention for the events in the Sovjet Union, where the succession of Leonid Brezhnev by Mikail Gorbachov (with two other leaders briefly in-between) led to sweeping changes in its policies and goals. However, that is not the focus of this particular book (I rather suspect Mr. Sebestyen is working on a separate book on that story) and here it is only given to the extent it helps us understand the events in the six East-block countries. The book does not describe paralel events in Yugoslavia or Albania, either.
Mr. Sebestyen is a very good writer in the tradition of British journalism, and this book is an easy and pleasant read. The chapters are all rather short and infuse the story with excitement and not rarely a cliff-hanger of sorts. As best I can tell the facts are presented in a balanced way and the research seems to have been done well - although I am sure some may find details that are incorrect (I found one: the Nobel prize for peace is given out in Oslo, not in Stockholm). There are some photographs in the book that illustrate and enliven the story - but more would have been better.
In some places Mr. Sebestyen provides us with a glimpse of how history research can discover only later what dramatic events were taking place without most of us realizing. One example of that, described in this book, is how in December of 1983 the world came closer to nuclear war than ever before. This is chilling reading, a reminder how differently things could have turned out... And, unexpectedly, Mr. Sebestyen provides us with a view of then-president Reagan that casts him in a more favorable light than many other sources have done.
The book is not edited well. There are sometimes gaps in the story lines, and some things are left hanging in the air. In some instances it is impossible to figure out when a specific event was supposed to have happened. But those are minor flaws in an otherwise impressive book.
All in all, this is a very good book on events that for many of us occurred during own lifetimes but we may nonetheless have missed some of the key ingredients. For those who were not around or too small to remember, this book is an absolute must-read. And maybe this book, or one similar in scope, should be required reading for all, lest we should forget how only very recently a major change in our world took place, in mostly a peaceful manner, forever changing the course of history.
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Revolution 1989 The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Audible Audio Edition) Victor Sebestyen Paul Hecht Recorded Books Books Reviews
This has got to be one of the best "history books" I have ever read. There is a goldmine of information that you wouldn't find in your normal history class. It gives a masterfully-written and engaging look at virtually all of the Soviet Satellites between the late 1960s up to 1991, including the Afghanistan War, Solidarity, the Power Politics behind all of it, and the eventual crumble through the regimes of Bulgaria, Romania, East Berlin, Poland, Czech, and Hungary. Even if you are not looking to use this as an educational experience, this dynamic text is a must-have for fans of central-eastern European history.
Victor Sebestyen's gripping masterpiece in what transpired in Eastern Europe culminating in the startling events of 1989 makes us realize that it just didn't happen. This remarkable treatise provides us with only the beginnings of understanding these historical events. Sebestyen explains the Warsaw Pact relationships of the old guard and how these countries operated under the careful auspices of "Mother Russia". In doing this, we see the basic structure and dependency of these satellite Communistic states of the USSR.
Sebestyen goes into detail about the basic failures and flaws of these totalitarian states and that the events played out in 1989 just didn't happen. The Author summarizes the life and times of Mikhail Gorbachev and his rise to leadership and his introduction of glasnost and perestroika. In essence he shows the USSR at an economic and political crossroads. The old regime of Leonid Brezhnev et al was tired, ineffective and no longer could "sell the big lie". It took three generations, but when Gorbachev came into power the USSR was totally bankrupt economically and politically.
With this in mind Sebestyen weaves an excellent historical perspective of all the iron curtain countries and shows their similarities and also their differences. His narrative explains these events that seem spontaneous but in reality were actions which were bottled up for decades within these countries which have experienced a "long hard winter".
This study will enlighten all who read it. I would highly recommend this as a general outline study for these historical events. One thing I was surprised about in this scholarly study was that the editing was not good. Sebestyen's writing is very good, however on more than one instance words were missing and sentences were fragmentized.
In all this was a remarkable read. Hopefully the editing will be better for future editions
This was a fascinating deconstruction of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. However, if you're looking for a book about the collapse of the Soviet Union, this is not it. It focuses on the members of the Warsaw Pact and while the Soviet Union and the figures that ran it play an important role, the books stops just before the collapse of the Soviet Union itself. I would like the book to have continued and followed to the endgame of Gorbachev's reforms, but it stops at 1990. But disappointing really. It's also interesting to think what a wonderful thing the current free movement Europeans have in this context when many were prisoners in their own countries.
Growing up in 60's and 70's I never thought communism would fall so quickly. My son was born in 1989 so has no concept of the cold war. This book describes some of the horrors of communism but that should be a book all it's own. Why do communists still teach on our college campuses when they were as bad as nazis? It is amazing the number of people that communism is fine,we just need the right people to run it.
This book is subtitled "the fall of the Sovjet empire"- which may sound a bit melodramatic. But it is, in fact, hard to overstate the magnitude and drama of the change that occurred in the pivotal year of 1989 when the six countries of eastern Europe in the Sovjet block one by one replaced their single-party communist systems with multi-party democracy, cut their allegiances to Moscow and the Warsaw pact, and embraced western style market-capitalism, social democracy, the European Union, and NATO.
In this book, Viktor Sebestyen, known from the acclaimed "Twelve Days" about the Hungarian uprising of 1956, takes us through the decade and a half preceding the year 1989. Chapter by chapter the book moves back and forth through the six countries under Sovjet dominion Eastern Germany, Poland, Chechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, providing us glimpses of those countries' unique histories and the manner in which they ended up being Sovjet vassals, the pivotal events in each of these countries that would have major repercussions - sometimes years later - such as the election of Polish pope John Paul II, and up until when, finally, the actual mostly peaceful overthrow of the communists' reign took place. Naturally, there is attention for the events in the Sovjet Union, where the succession of Leonid Brezhnev by Mikail Gorbachov (with two other leaders briefly in-between) led to sweeping changes in its policies and goals. However, that is not the focus of this particular book (I rather suspect Mr. Sebestyen is working on a separate book on that story) and here it is only given to the extent it helps us understand the events in the six East-block countries. The book does not describe paralel events in Yugoslavia or Albania, either.
Mr. Sebestyen is a very good writer in the tradition of British journalism, and this book is an easy and pleasant read. The chapters are all rather short and infuse the story with excitement and not rarely a cliff-hanger of sorts. As best I can tell the facts are presented in a balanced way and the research seems to have been done well - although I am sure some may find details that are incorrect (I found one the Nobel prize for peace is given out in Oslo, not in Stockholm). There are some photographs in the book that illustrate and enliven the story - but more would have been better.
In some places Mr. Sebestyen provides us with a glimpse of how history research can discover only later what dramatic events were taking place without most of us realizing. One example of that, described in this book, is how in December of 1983 the world came closer to nuclear war than ever before. This is chilling reading, a reminder how differently things could have turned out... And, unexpectedly, Mr. Sebestyen provides us with a view of then-president Reagan that casts him in a more favorable light than many other sources have done.
The book is not edited well. There are sometimes gaps in the story lines, and some things are left hanging in the air. In some instances it is impossible to figure out when a specific event was supposed to have happened. But those are minor flaws in an otherwise impressive book.
All in all, this is a very good book on events that for many of us occurred during own lifetimes but we may nonetheless have missed some of the key ingredients. For those who were not around or too small to remember, this book is an absolute must-read. And maybe this book, or one similar in scope, should be required reading for all, lest we should forget how only very recently a major change in our world took place, in mostly a peaceful manner, forever changing the course of history.
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