Memoirs
New York: Doubleday, 1995. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xxix, [1], 769, [1] pages. Foreword by Martin McCauley. A Note on Russian Names. Footnotes. Illustrations. Chronology. Glossary by Martin McCauley. Biographies. Index. Publisher's compliments card laid in. Signature on title page appears from comparison with some internet images to be that of Gorbachev. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 2 March 1931) is a Russian and formerly Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was General Secretary of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, serving as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically a socialist, he initially adhered to Marxism-Leninism although following the Soviet collapse moved toward social democracy. Derived from a Kirkus review: The autobiography of a general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is not only filled with information and assessments unobtainable elsewhere, but is also candid, wry and unusually revealing about the nature of power at the top of the Soviet Union. There is a human being with a profound sense of justice at the center of this narrative. Both of his grandfathers were sent to labor camps during the purges, and one of his wife's grandfathers was executed. He is frank to say that he hid his feelings, a requirement in a party whose leaders did not even exchange personal visits because this might suggest they were plotting. He freely confesses the timidity and piecemeal strategy of many of his early moves. There is a richness in this autobiography to which no review can do justice. It leaves a deep impression of a remarkable and decent human being trying to improve a system that wasn't. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Soviet Union, Perestroika, Andropov, Cold War, Glasnost, KGB, Nuclear Weapons, Ronald Reagan, Russian Federation, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Eduard Shevardnadze, Supreme Soviet, Central Committee, Communist Party, Communism, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin
ISBN: 0385480199
[Book #76938]
Price: $1,000.00