A01=Chris Miller
Author_Chris Miller
Category=KCZ
Category=NHD
China
Chinese economic history
Collapse of the Soviet Union
comparative political economy
Deng Xiaoping
economic history
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
glasnost
history of the USSR
international political economy
Mikhail Gorbachev
oil in Russia
perestroika
Russian economic history
Russian history
Russian industry
Russian monetary history
Russian politics
socialist economics
Soviet economic history
Soviet history
special economic zones
Vladimir Putin
Yegor Ligachev
Zhao Ziyang
Product details
- ISBN 9781469661537
- Weight: 333g
- Dimensions: 155 x 233mm
- Publication Date: 01 Aug 2020
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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For half a century the Soviet economy was 'inefficient' but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China?
Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.
Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.
Chris Miller is assistant professor of international history at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-director of the school's Russia and Eurasia Program.
