Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Promotion

Use code BESTBOOKS24 for 25% off sitewide + free shipping over $35

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

The Last Empire

The Final Days of the Soviet Union

The Last Empire Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Serhii Plokhy

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$24.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $24.99 CAD
  2. ebook $18.99 $24.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 2, 2015. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe offers “a stirring account of an extraordinary moment” in Russian history (Wall Street Journal)

On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush’s speech and has persisted for decades — with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world.

As prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals in The Last Empire, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. Bush, in fact, was firmly committed to supporting Gorbachev as he attempted to hold together the USSR in the face of growing independence movements in its republics. Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union’s final months, providing invaluable insight into the origins of the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the outset of the most dangerous crisis in East-West relations since the end of the Cold War.
 
Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize
Winner of the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize
Choice Outstanding Academic Title
BBC History Magazine Best History Book of the Year

Genre:

  • "A superb read: a deeply researched, indispensable reappraisal of the fall of the USSR that has the nail-biting drama of a movie, the gripping narrative and colorful personalities of a novel, and the analysis and original sources of a work of scholarship."
    Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine (Best History Books of the Year)
  • “A stirring account of an extraordinary moment…what elevates The Last Empire from solid history to the must-read shelf is its relevance to the current crisis.”
    Wall Street Journal
  • "Using recently released documents, Plokhy traces in fascinating detail the complex events that led to the Soviet Union's implosion."
    Foreign Affairs
  • "A fine-grained, closely reported, highly readable account of the upheavals of 1991."
    Financial Times
  • "Plokhy makes a convincing case that the misplaced triumphalism of the senior Bush's administration led to the disastrous hubris of his son's."
    Slate
  • "A fascinating and readable deep dive into the final half-year of the Soviet Union."
    Sunday Telegraph (UK)
  • "A superb work of scholarship, vividly written, that challenges tired old assumptions with fresh material from East and West, as well as revealing interviews with many major players."
    Spectator (UK)
  • "An incisive account of the five months leading up to the Union's dissolution.... His vibrant, fast-paced narrative style captures the story superbly."
    Sunday Times (UK)
  • "Almost a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of the actions and reactions of the main figures.... Very relevant to today's Ukrainian crisis...very well recounted."
    Literary Review (UK)
  • "Serhii Plokhy's great achievement in this wonderfully well-written account is to show that much of the triumphalist transatlantic view of the Soviet collapse is historiographical manure."
    Times of London (UK)

  • "Plokhy does a good job of debunking much of the conventional wisdom, especially prevalent in the United States, about the American role in the break-up of the Soviet Union.... His setting the record straight is also of more than historiographical significance."
    Times Literary Supplement
  • "A meticulously documented chronicle of the evil empire's demise.... [Plokhy] is the voice Ukrainians have been yearning for."
    Ukrainian Weekly
  • "With Crimea annexed and eastern Ukraine starting to break away to Russia, The Last Empire may be the most timely book of the year."
    National Review
  • "One of a rare breed: a well-balanced, unbiased book written on the fall of Soviet Union that emphasizes expert research and analysis."
    Publishers Weekly
  • "[Plokhy] provides fascinating details (especially concerning Ukraine) about this fraught, historic time."
    Kirkus

On Sale
Jun 2, 2015
Page Count
544 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465046713

You May Also Like

The Last Tsar
The Last Tsar $35.00 $46.00 CAD
Lost Kingdom
Lost Kingdom $19.99 $24.99 CAD
A Nasty Little War
A Nasty Little War $32.00 $41.00 CAD
Putin’s World
Putin’s World $18.99 $23.99 CAD
The Compatriots
The Compatriots $19.99 $24.99 CAD

Serhii Plokhy

About the Author

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. The New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe and Nuclear Folly, Plokhy is an award-winning author of numerous books. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Learn more about this author