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Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the Central Eastern Europe category. --Choice Magazine"Choice Outstanding Academic Title" (03/12/2012)
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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 neighbours. 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, Russias 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. Russias Cold War fills a significant gap in our understanding of the most important geopolitical rivalry of the twentieth century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This deeply serious history, unadorned by any photographs, even on the cover, is distinctive for presenting the Cold War from a Soviet perspective, and for making use of "previously inaccessible" archives. It increased my understanding of, say the level of US ignorance of European geopolitics during and just after World War II, and of Stalin's machinations, largely based on fear of the intentions of any person or state that might threaten his power. It contains many pithy and revealing quotations. The extent of leakage of British and US correspondence and plans via Russian spies is also intriguing.
However, I found this a hard read. The author makes little attempt to consider the needs of his readers. Some of the main events, such as the terms of the Yalta Agreement are referred to as if one is already familiar with them. This rather begs the question as to why one would need to read the book. Space which could have been used for brief explanations is instead taken up with a string of "minor characters" who, when they prove hard to recall on an unforseeable reappearance, sometimes cannot be found in the rather inadequate index. I also found a few distracting typos e.g. 1939 instead of 1919. I formed the impression that this book has been culled rapidly from copious notes by a busy academic, with the result that some paragraphs seem full of non sequiturs, which even after several readings may remain fairly unclear. For instance, on page 72 a paragraph begins:
"In March 1946 London and Washington finally cemented intelligence cooperation with the UK-USA agreement which updated its predecessor, BRUSA, concluded in 1943. Kennan's long telegram relaunched his idling career. It arrived just as the White House had to make sense of continued failure to redress Truman's attention." Why is this section separated by a good deal of digression from that on page 71 which explains some of the contents of the telegram?
Likewise, on page 82, a section headed "The Truman Doctrine", does not clearly explain what this is. "The Truman doctrine was thus proclaimed in a 'panic move'. Addressing Congress on March 12, Truman anathematized communism in general on the false assumption that it was entirely directed from the Kremlin as it had been before 1941." Very interesting, but what exactly was the Doctrine, and why should communism be condemned on the above grounds?
Worse than this, on page 95, a section headed, "No more communist uprisings for now" launches into references to the PCF and PCI policy (whatever they are) and references to Thorez, without making the context at all clear, even after the reader has struggled to work it out using the index. It all makes for a confusing read.
Owing to the need to cover systematically the period from 1917 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this boils down to a rather dense poitical history of modern Russia, often jumping from one sub-section to another with a very different theme, rather than a succinct analysis of the "Cold War".
With better editing, this could be an excellent book. As it stands, it calls for a reader with a good deal of time and patience. Perhaps its value is mainly as a reference book for students. I have made a note to return to it after I have tried a few other takes on Soviet Russia, and the "Cold War" to see what it may add at that stage of my understanding
However, I found this a hard read. The author makes little attempt to consider the needs of his readers. Some of the main events, such as the terms of the Yalta Agreement are referred to as if one is already familiar with them. This rather begs the question as to why one would need to read the book. Space which could have been used for brief explanations is instead taken up with a string of "minor characters" who, when they prove hard to recall on an unforseeable reappearance, sometimes cannot be found in the rather inadequate index. I also found a few distracting typos e.g. 1939 instead of 1919. I formed the impression that this book has been culled rapidly from copious notes by a busy academic, with the result that some paragraphs seem full of non sequiturs, which even after several readings may remain fairly unclear. For instance, on page 72 a paragraph begins:
"In March 1946 London and Washington finally cemented intelligence cooperation with the UK-USA agreement which updated its predecessor, BRUSA, concluded in 1943. Kennan's long telegram relaunched his idling career. It arrived just as the White House had to make sense of continued failure to redress Truman's attention." Why is this section separated by a good deal of digression from that on page 71 which explains some of the contents of the telegram?
Likewise, on page 82, a section headed "The Truman Doctrine", does not clearly explain what this is. "The Truman doctrine was thus proclaimed in a 'panic move'. Addressing Congress on March 12, Truman anathematized communism in general on the false assumption that it was entirely directed from the Kremlin as it had been before 1941." Very interesting, but what exactly was the Doctrine, and why should communism be condemned on the above grounds?
Worse than this, on page 95, a section headed, "No more communist uprisings for now" launches into references to the PCF and PCI policy (whatever they are) and references to Thorez, without making the context at all clear, even after the reader has struggled to work it out using the index. It all makes for a confusing read.
Owing to the need to cover systematically the period from 1917 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this boils down to a rather dense poitical history of modern Russia, often jumping from one sub-section to another with a very different theme, rather than a succinct analysis of the "Cold War".
With better editing, this could be an excellent book. As it stands, it calls for a reader with a good deal of time and patience. Perhaps its value is mainly as a reference book for students. I have made a note to return to it after I have tried a few other takes on Soviet Russia, and the "Cold War" to see what it may add at that stage of my understanding
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Absolutely rivetting acount of the rationale behind Russian policy, effectively from the 1920's to the fall of the DDR, based largely on Russian archive material by a scholarly author. The book is obviously of considerable value to the professional historian, but succeeds admirably in its effort to present the topic to the intrested amateur in a lively and readable fashion. A large detailed book, thoroughly to be recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A thorough book which assembles much new material in one packed volume. Many of the events of the Cold War come to life in this fascinating account. It shows clearly that certainly in the post Stalin age the person at the head of the Party in Russia was always circumscribed by colleagues and frquently unaware of what was happening in the "Deep State" of the military which was running its own agenda throughout this time.
I was struck by aspects of two earlier reviews. If Antenna really does not understand "references into the PCI and PCF policy whatever they are" then he/she really should be reading a simpler text. The initials of the Italian and French Communist parties being universally known amongst serious students of these years. Similarly if Mr Robertson wants more photographs he should buy a picture book there are plenty available.
I was mildly annoyed by the typos but was impressed overall by how much was crammed into these 400 pages. My one criticism is that although advertised as being an account "from the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall" it is really a post war account of the Cold War.
An excellent book for any serious student of this period.
I was struck by aspects of two earlier reviews. If Antenna really does not understand "references into the PCI and PCF policy whatever they are" then he/she really should be reading a simpler text. The initials of the Italian and French Communist parties being universally known amongst serious students of these years. Similarly if Mr Robertson wants more photographs he should buy a picture book there are plenty available.
I was mildly annoyed by the typos but was impressed overall by how much was crammed into these 400 pages. My one criticism is that although advertised as being an account "from the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall" it is really a post war account of the Cold War.
An excellent book for any serious student of this period.
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