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 Useful insights September 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Both Remnick's on Russia provide deep and useful insights on the political life of this country. A must-read for people interested in Russia's recent history.
 Fascinating tour of the times leading up to and after the fall of the Soviet Union March 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a fascinating exploration of the last days of the Soviet Union, providing a background of the broad mix of events and people involved both before, during and after the Gorbachev era. It maps the mindset and events during this dramatic change. It is told with a direct, personal style that I found gripping, and that gives a very good sense of the societal changes and impacts. I highly recommend it.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A Classic on the Unraveling of USSR December 31, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
David Remnick writes in his book, "Once the regime eased up enough to permit a full-scale examination of the Soviet past, radical change was inevitable. Once the System showed itself for what it was and had been, it was doomed."
Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost reforms opened Pandora's Box of freedom. Once the people experiences freedoms, they wanted more. Without a tyrant in control anymore, like Gorbachev's predecessors, nothing could hold the Soviet Empire together anymore.
I highly recommend this book. I also recommend "The Cold War: A New History" by John Lewis Gaddis," "Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended" by Jack Matlock (Reagan's top advisor and ambassador to USSR), "America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2002" by Walter LaFeber and "The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991" by Ronald Powaski. Also read Ronald Reagan's autobiography "An American Life." Reagan himself debunks the false claim that he destroyed the USSR. In fact, he and Gorbachev became friends and peacefully ended the cold war a few years before Gorbachev fell from power. Reagan wrote that he was concerned that his friend Gorbachev might be harmed by Soviet hardliners in a coup. He turned out to be right.
A coup was staged, but it failed. That's when the unraveling accelerated.
 Shallow and sensationalist, but thorough June 6, 2006
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
David Remnick's "Lenin's Tomb" is a book about the journalist's experiences just before and during the collapse of the USSR at the end of the 1980s. Using a chronological overview, Remnick describes what the Soviet Union was like under the reign of Gorbachov (or "Gorbachev" in US spelling) and his views on the various leaders, journalists, KGB officers, bureaucrats, dissidents and so on.
Because Remnick goes almost entirely by interviews for his information, the book gives a very thorough biographical view of the times, but there is very little information on the general state of the country, economic and social causes for the collapse, and so on. Remnick's tone and style are very much like those of a tabloid investigative journalist, describing people and events mostly by way of the author's opinions and what the people he interviews look and act like. This has the benefit of giving one the impression of re-living the interactions with the famous of those years, but is far too shallow for any explanatory purpose.
Additionally, Remnick has too obvious favorites among the people involved. Gorbachov is generally shown more negatively than often in the West, but that fits the overall negative appraisal given to him in Russia. But people like Yeltsin and Solzhenitsyn are praised endlessly and can practically do no wrong, even though there are serious issues with both. Sakharov in particular is elevated literally to the level of a modern saint by Remnick: he is never mentioned without describing his "saintliness", "superior morality", and so on. Now in many of the cases Remnick's qualifications of his interviewees seem deserved, but it does get annoying after a while. Better to let readers decide whom they like than to pre-ordain all this.
Overall, the book is mostly useful as a collection of interviews of important people at the end of the 1980s, and as such it is very balanced in the kind of people interviewed. It fails entirely as anything more though, and should not be used as a serious explanatory book on the hows and whys of the USSR's collapse. And that is somewhat disappointing.
Great Book April 16, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just a quick note, I really enjoyed this book. I was an adult when the Soviet Union fell, but I was very ignorant of what was really going on. Remnick's incisive portraits of the people on both sides of the fall of Communism bring the era to life.
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