Roy Medvedev, one of the world's best-known Russian scholars and a former consultant to both Gorbachev and Yeltsin analyzes the main events that have transpired in the Russian federation since late August 1991. He looks at the plans that were meant to restructure a society in crisis but -- for reasons both complex and obvious -- were destined to fail. From the drastic liberalization of prices and "shock therapy" to the privatization of state owned property and Yeltsin's resignation and replacement by Vladimir Putin, this is an intricately fascinating saga of good intentions, philosophical warfare, and catastrophic miscalculations.

Among the many compelling facts detailed here are Yeltsin's utter surprise -- and lack of preparation -- at the failed coup against Gorbachev in 1991, when power fell virtually into his lap; his failure to heed the warnings of learned advisers like Yuri Yaremenko, who knew that Western economics could not be applied to Russia; and Yeltsin's dramatic (and unprecedented) decree in 1992 allowing anyone to sell or buy anything they wished.

In a sweeping conclusion covering the critical events of 1998 and 1999 as well as a detailed analysis of the 1995 and 1996 elections, Medvedev lays forth an exhaustive survey of recent political shifts, attitudes, statistics, and trends. From birth and death rates on the farm and in the city through a number of highly charged campaigns and elections to the new goal of the Communist Youth League (to become millionaires), this is a breathtakingly detailed survey of an unforgettable chapter in Russia's history.

Two prominent Soviet dissidents portray Khrushchev in power as a shrewd, complex, decisive, and impetuous innovator, impatient to remedy defects in the Soviet system but carried away by initial successes.

A unique view of the Khrushchev period as seen by two prominent Soviet dissidents.

This portrait by two noted Soviet authors and dissidents of Nikita Khrushchev's years in power reveals the former leader of the Soviet Union as a decisive, even impetuous, innovator, a side of him little known before in the West. Khrushchev emerges as a man impatient to destroy Stalinism, to remedy defects in the Soviet system, and to solve the problems of Soviet agriculture. As no other book before it, Khrushchev brings into focus the manu sides of the shrewd and complex Soviet leader and the interrelation between Soviet politics nd agricultural policy that brought about his removal from power.

"The Medvedev brothers . . . give us a deliberately sober and balanced picture of Khrushchev. As might be expected they are particularly good in dealing with his policies on science and agriculture." —Foreign Affairs

Roy Medvedev demonstrates, in engrossing and sharp detail, how the vast gulf between Marxist-Leninist principles and official Soviet attitudes and procedures turned vital theory into hollow dogma. Focusing on the rigidities of official ideology, he makes brilliantly clear the ways in which an excessively centralized and cumbersome bureaucratic structure was disastrous for the economic, intellectual, and moral development of Soviet society keeping it dangerously insular in an era of increasing internationalism."

The story of Medvedev s own hospitalization and the efforts of his twin brother to secure his release are sensitively chronicled in this dramatic hour-by-hour account of the nineteen days that began with an ominous knock on the door, and ended or did it? with Zhores s conditional release. The format of the book is brilliantly conceived, taking the form of a dual autobiographical account, with alternate chapters by each of the brothers Medvedev. Alan M. Dershowitz, New York Times Book Review"

Roy Medvedev, one of the world's best-known Russian scholars and a former consultant to both Gorbachev and Yeltsin analyzes the main events that have transpired in the Russian federation since late August 1991. He looks at the plans that were meant to restructure a society in crisis but -- for reasons both complex and obvious -- were destined to fail. From the drastic liberalization of prices and "shock therapy" to the privatization of state owned property and Yeltsin's resignation and replacement by Vladimir Putin, this is an intricately fascinating saga of good intentions, philosophical warfare, and catastrophic miscalculations.

Among the many compelling facts detailed here are Yeltsin's utter surprise -- and lack of preparation -- at the failed coup against Gorbachev in 1991, when power fell virtually into his lap; his failure to heed the warnings of learned advisers like Yuri Yaremenko, who knew that Western economics could not be applied to Russia; and Yeltsin's dramatic (and unprecedented) decree in 1992 allowing anyone to sell or buy anything they wished.

In a sweeping conclusion covering the critical events of 1998 and 1999 as well as a detailed analysis of the 1995 and 1996 elections, Medvedev lays forth an exhaustive survey of recent political shifts, attitudes, statistics, and trends. From birth and death rates on the farm and in the city through a number of highly charged campaigns and elections to the new goal of the Communist Youth League (to become millionaires), this is a breathtakingly detailed survey of an unforgettable chapter in Russia's history.

The most comprehensive and revealing investigation of Stalinism and political developments in the Soviet Union from 1922-1953, this edition is an extensively revised and expanded version of a classic work. Internationally known historian Roy Medvedev has included more than one-hundred new interviews, unpublished memoirs, and archives from survivors of Stalin's death camps. This updated version of a classic work was written during a time of great change in the Soviet Union. With the advent of "perestroika" and "glasnost, " more progressive leadership has sought to demolish the Stalinist system which had finally crippled the Soviet Union and incited public discontent.

"Let History Judge" contains new material on: purges in 1929-1931 and terror against the peasantry, the Kirov assasination and show trials, the "great terror" from 1936-1938 which caused irreparable damage to the Soviet Union and left it vulnerable for Hilter's attack in 1941, the trial of Bukharin, Trotsky's revolutionary activity and Stalin's involvement with his murder in Mexico, Stalin's miscalculations and errors during the war which cost the Soviet Union nearly 25 million in casualties, new purges from 1946-1953, and the actual vote of the Seventeenth Congress, which decided Stalin's candidacy.

Since the first edition was finished by the author in 1969 and published in 1971, dozens of new informants have come forward to give their evidence to Roy Medvedev. Distinguished Soviet literary, cultural, and political figures like the late Alexander Twardovsky, Ilja Ehrenburg, Konstantin Simonov, Yuri Trifono, Mikhail Romm and many others have accumulated documentary records of Stalinism in anticipation of an expanded version.

Nikolai Bukharin was one of the most eminent leaders and theoreticians of the Bolsheviks, a man who had become famous long before the Russian Revolution. He was idolized by the youth of Soviet Russia, who identified with him and drew much of their inspiration from his writings. Prominent among the organizers of the revolution, he served for twenty years on the Central Committee and for ten years as a member of the Politburo. From 1917 to 1929 he was in charge of the newspaper Pravda, and though he and Lenin often disagreed, Lenin referred to him in his Testament as "deservedly the favorite of the Party."