Collapse of an Empire

Collapse of an Empire
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages : 354
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780815731153
ISBN-13 : 0815731159
Rating : 4/5 (159 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Collapse of an Empire by : Yegor Gaidar

Download or read book Collapse of an Empire written by Yegor Gaidar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would collapse...." —From the Introduction to Collapse of an Empire The Soviet Union was an empire in many senses of the word—a vast mix of far-flung regions and accidental citizens by way of conquest or annexation. Typical of such empires, it was built on shaky foundations. That instability made its demise inevitable, asserts Yegor Gaidar, former prime minister of Russia and architect of the "shock therapy" economic reforms of the 1990s. Yet a growing desire to return to the glory days of empire is pushing today's Russia backward into many of the same traps that made the Soviet Union untenable. In this important new book, Gaidar clearly illustrates why Russian nostalgia for empire is dangerous and ill-fated: "Dreams of returning to another era are illusory. Attempts to do so will lead to defeat." Gaidar uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why swimming against this tide of history would be a huge mistake. The USSR sowed the seeds of its own economic destruction, and Gaidar worries that Russia is repeating some of those mistakes. Once again, for example, the nation is putting too many eggs into one basket, leaving the nation vulnerable to fluctuations in the energy market. The Soviets had used revenues from energy sales to prop up struggling sectors such as agriculture, which was so thoroughly ravaged by hyperindustrialization that the Soviet Union became a net importer of food. When oil prices dropped in the 1980s, that revenue stream diminished, and dependent sectors suffered heavily. Although strategies requiring austerity or sacrifice can be politically difficult, Russia needs to prepare for such downturns and restrain spending during prosperous times. Collapse of an Empire shows why it is imperative to fix the roof before it starts to rain, and why so


Collapse of an Empire Related Books

Collapse of an Empire
Language: en
Pages: 354
Authors: Yegor Gaidar
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-01-01 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would co
The Fall of Empires
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Chad Denton
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-05-28 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Historical Survey of the Many Ways Empires have Succumbed to External and Internal Pressures There are no self-proclaimed empires today. After the twentieth c
Imperial Ends
Language: en
Pages: 188
Authors: Alexander J. Motyl
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2001-08-01 - Publisher: Columbia University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite their historical importance, empires have received scant attention from social scientists. Now, Alexander J. Motyl examines the structure, dynamics, and
Autopsy on an Empire
Language: en
Pages: 874
Authors: Jack F. Matlock
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 1995 - Publisher: Random House (NY)

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Matlock, who served in the USSR for most of his career, including as ambassador during the Reagan and Bush administrations, gives this insider's look at the yea
Questioning Collapse
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Patricia A. McAnany
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Questioning Collapse challenges those scholars and popular writers who advance the thesis that societies - past and present - collapse because of behavior that