Ocean State Libraries

The implosion of the Soviet Union was the culmination of a gripping game played out between two men who intensely disliked each other and had different concepts for the future. Mikhail Gorbachev, a sophisticated and urbane reformer, sought to modernize and preserve the USSR; Boris Yeltsin, a coarse and a hard drinking "bulldozer," wished to destroy the union and create a capitalist Russia. The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt, carried out by...

Examines the events in the Soviet Union during the time of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, including the failed coup of 1991 and the collapse of the Union itself.

After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years. Putin's motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail Gorbachev. In this new work, Russia's elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience to reveal the development of Putin's regime and the intentions behind it. He argues that Putin has significantly...

"The decade that gave us the "yuppie" was all about big business, big government and big changes. The balance in global dominance shifted as the superpowers - China, the USSR, the U.S., and England - realigned and either asserted themselves or faded away. Our world changed forever during these fateful ten years, and this captivating two-disc set clarifies the major events - and major players - that shaped our globe."--Container.