This reader is intended to fill the urgent need for up-to-date materials on the Gorbachev era and to provide scholars and students with source materials and interpretations not available in standard texts. In addition, the book will be regularly revised and updated to take account of rapidly changing events. Alexander Dallin and Gail Lapidus have brought together outstanding Western analyses, as well as Soviet documents and commentary, dealing with developments in the USSR's politics, economy, society, culture, and foreign policy since 1985. The collection covers the full spectrum of views-skeptical and enthusiastic, ideological and pragmatic-offered by journalists, politicians, observers, and participants. Introductory and concluding material by the editors provides the essential context to help students understand the myriad opinions put forth on the vast changes in the USSR and where its future may lie.

Exploring Soviet and Russian history, politics, and foreign policy, The Uses of History brings together the classic essays of renowned scholar Alexander Dallin. The author provides insightful analysis and nuanced interpretations of such key and controversial issues as the domestic sources of Soviet foreign policy, Stalin's leadership in World War II, Russian-American relations in the Reagan era, the causes of the collapse of the USSR, and the disappointments of Russia's post-Soviet evolution. With his incisive assessment of the biases and blunders in American interpretations, Dallin rejects single-factor explanations for Soviet and Russian domestic and foreign policies, instead examining the complex interplay of internal and external conditions, institutions, mindsets, and the role of individual leaders. All readers interested in Soviet and post-Soviet history will find this collection a stimulating and deeply knowledgeable resource."

This reader is intended to fill the urgent need for up-to-date materials on the Gorbachev era and to provide scholars and students with source materials and interpretations not available in standard texts. In addition, the book will be regularly revised and updated to take account of rapidly changing events. Alexander Dallin and Gail Lapidus have brought together outstanding Western analyses, as well as Soviet documents and commentary, dealing with developments in the USSR's politics, economy, society, culture, and foreign policy since 1985. The collection covers the full spectrum of views-skeptical and enthusiastic, ideological and pragmatic-offered by journalists, politicians, observers, and participants. Introductory and concluding material by the editors provides the essential context to help students understand the myriad opinions put forth on the vast changes in the USSR and where its future may lie.

On September 1, 1983, a Soviet fighter plane shot down a South Korean commercial airliner, KAL 007, killing all 269 persons aboard. Why did the jet stray hundreds of miles off course and fly for hours over Soviet territory, including sensitive nuclear and submarine installations? And why did the Soviets decide that that plane had to be brought down? These are the major questions this book addresses. It is the first book-length exploration of all the available information, and it weighs each of the hypotheses that has been advanced here and abroad to explain the dramatic episode, which led to a Soviet-American confrontation just as relations between the two super powers seemed to be on the verge of improvement. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

On September 1, 1983, a Soviet fighter plane shot down a South Korean commercial airliner, KAL 007, killing all 269 persons aboard. Why did the jet stray hundreds of miles off course and fly for hours over Soviet territory, including sensitive nuclear and submarine installations? And why did the Soviets decide that that plane had to be brought down? These are the major questions this book addresses. It is the first book-length exploration of all the available information, and it weighs each of the hypotheses that has been advanced here and abroad to explain the dramatic episode, which led to a Soviet-American confrontation just as relations between the two super powers seemed to be on the verge of improvement. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.