Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Michael Dobbs (PDF)

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“One of the great stories of our time . . . a wonderful anecdotal history of a great drama.”–San Francisco Chronicle Book ReviewAs Washington Post correspondent in Moscow, Warsaw, and Yugoslavia in the final decade of the Soviet empire, Michael Dobbs had a ringside seat to the extraordinary events that led to the unraveling of the Bolshevik Revolution. From Tito’s funeral to the birth of Solidarity in the Gda´nsk shipyard, from the tragedy of Tiananmen Square to Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank in the center of Moscow, Dobbs saw it all.The fall of communism was one of the great human dramas of our century, as great a drama as the original Bolshevik revolution. Dobbs met almost all of the principal actors, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Václav Havel, and Andrei Sakharov. With a sweeping command of the subject and the passion and verve of an eyewitness, he paints an unforgettable portrait of the decade in which the familiar and seemingly petrified Cold War world–the world of Checkpoint Charlie and Dr. Strangelove–vanished forever.”Down with Big Brother ranks very high among the plethora of books about the fall of the Soviet Union and the death throes of Communism. It is possibly the most vividly written of the lot.”– Adam B. Ulam, Washington Post Book World

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐When the Soviet Union collapsed, it caught a lot of reporters, politicians and academics off guard. Certainly, there were problems there, but collapse? Hardly. The CIA’s own estimates showed a reasonably strong economy, growth, and enough surplus to support Poland, Cuba, the GDR and other client states. Yuri Andropov, the new Premier, was a “progressive” who “liked Western jazz,” the New York Times told us. Everything was moving along smoothly. And then in the course of a very few years, the Pope spoke out for the oppressed masses, the workers and the Gdansk shipyard revolted, the Berlin Wall opened up and the entire USSR collapsed. Analysts and pundits began to craft all sorts of stories to explain what happened. Chief among these was the Gorbachev-as-reformer story, in which an enlightened leader rises through the ranks and leads his nation into a new democratic world. A lot of people bought into this legend. But not Michael Dobbs.Dobbs grew up behind the Iron Curtain, the son of career diplomats. He knew the people, the language, and the culture, and he was able to turn that experience into a long career as a journalist, reporting on the events that would shake the world. His familiarity with the Soviet world gave him an entree into this secretive society that few other journalists had, and he was able to dig out the details of every significant event that led to the eventual collapse of the USSR. His discussion of the succession of leaders includes details of debates and discussions between Politburo members that suggests he had sources buried deep within the Soviet hierarchy- and that he had better intelligence about their goings on than did a lot of Western intelligence services.One area in which Dobbs’ reporting surpasses a lot of his colleagues is in the roll of SDI in the fall of the USSR. He recognized in Reagan , as he put it, “a flexibility and tactical finesse that belied his reputation as a cold warrior.” The combination of Reagan’s SDI plans- which the Soviets quickly realized they could not afford to match- with Reagan’s diplomatic outreach to the Soviets put them in the position of having to negotiate, and for the first time in history, a nuclear arms reduction treaty was signed between the two powers. After the very first meeting between the two leaders, Dobbs reports, Gorbachev came away convinced that war between the US and USSR was not, as successive Soviet leaders had proclaimed, inevitable or even likely.Dobbs details the series of Soviet failures that further weakened the state and led to its collapse: Chernobyl, Afghanistan, KAL 007, Sakharov’s elevation to the Congress of Party Deputies, the collapse of the satellite states and more. For those who grew up during the cold war and recall the collapse of the USSR, this book is a great reminder of those times, and a fascinating glipse into the minds of the players and the details of pivotal events, most of whioch have been forgotten and many of which never made it to the pages of the newspapers. For those who grew up in the years after the collapse of the USSR, this book (and Robert Conquest’s

⭐) are required reading.

⭐During the height of the Cold War the thought of the USSR not being a political entity before the end of the millennium would have brought forth comments of one’s sanity and thoughts of one being based in realpolitik or rather a fantasy world. The existence of this once mighty and dominant political entity lasted no more than the average lifespan of a human as a mere nightmare for most or a dream to the privileged leaders who propagated and perpetuated this form of government. By the late 70s it had become apparent that the old-school dinosaurs led by Brezhnev were no longer up to the tasks of solving geopolitical and economic problems. The western world was passing the USSR by in every measurement possible economically, defense-wise and media-wise. The whole system of socialist government was outdated and slowly dying of hardening of the arteries. The beginning of the end started with Brezhnev pulling the trigger on invading Afghanistan which turned into a 10 year war which drained the USSR economically and in the end was a deep blow to the pride of their military. In effect it became USSR’s Vietnam but with much more severe results. The author Michael Dobbs whose background and education was mostly in living behind the iron curtain and he saw the beginnings of the breakup of the USSR. From the shipyard strikes in Poland to the coming of a new type of modern Communist who was not born before the Revolution, and who had the gaul to introduce perestroika and to bring forth new ideas and ways to open up a society, we see a leader trying to reform Communism. In doing this reform Gorbachev takes stock of the USSR shortcomings and faults and in doing so makes irrevocable changes which in a very short period of time will eventually bring about the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe. In the first accounts of the demise of Communism in Europe, we found books and thoughts that the revolution against this old form of totalitarian government was easily toppled with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fortifications of the Wall on Western Europe. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It took another 2 years to bring about the demise of the USSR and the struggles of other Eastern European countries with the fall of Communism in Romania which was not entirely bloodless and the slaughter brought forth in Yugoslavia with the Civil war with the Muslims in Bosnia and Sarajevo. There indeed were mighty ramifications with the downfall of Mother Russia and its dealings with Communism. Mr. Dobbs has brought forward to us a detailed account into the whys and wherefores of the demise of a government which indeed was the antithesis was what Karl Marx envisioned. Indeed it was a government which in all reality was no better than the vision of Adolph Hitler and his beloved Germany! As Mr. Dobbs observed, it seems a miracle that the USSR survived as long as it did. In many memories this government brought only pain and suffering to multiple generations of people only seeking a normal life dedicated to family and friends and not the the thought of what George Orwell called “Big Brother.”

⭐An absolutely excellent book. I am not usually a reader of any kind of historical books but Michael Dobbs has a knack of making history come alive. It reads like an exciting novel. It is well seen that MD is a really skillful journalist with time spent at Reuters, Washington Post et al. As well as being extremely well versed in his subject he was actually present at the time of the critical events, even interviewing many of the leading figures contemporaneously. A real master of prose as well as facts with the ability to link and explain what was happening from the points of view of the participants. He has done a prodigious amount of research to back up his writing.I am sorry that this is such a poorly written review compared with the book itself but what more can I say than to suggest that you read it for yourself. I am sure that you will not be disappointed. I could hardly put it down.

⭐I am really interested in this part of history and have to say of the 3 or4 books I have read of this period history this was the best . A very readable and informative book . Well done

⭐This is singular the best non fiction book I’ve read. It reads like a thriller and clearly sets out how the Soviet Union collapsed. It also explains how the Croatian Serbian conflict came about.

⭐I love this whole trilogy and can’t recommend it highly enough

⭐Great read about a pivotal moment in world history

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