The Russian Tragedy Under Gorbachev and Yeltsin

A few years ago, the historian Elbert Toonen wrote the very surprising The Glory of the Russians under L. Brezhnev, a break through the silence that seemed to have fallen over Soviet history since the communist party gave up its leading position in Russia and the Soviet world empire literally and figuratively fell apart. That period was followed by a new path in the foreign policy of the United States that is now being watched with much suspicion.
But where did Russia remain, which after Brezhnev, who in a sense created the last peak period for the Soviets, went through such an intense tragedy under Gorbachev and Yeltsin? Hasn't the world been free of all Soviet aggression since 1991, and hasn't an era since 1917 ended as if a new century were now beginning? The mystery is that, apart from a few foreign titles, little has been written about Russian change and decline.

Now an increasingly autarkic Putin rules and Russia seems to be moving towards a new, streamlined hierarchy. Is a resurrection preparing itself?

Elbert Toonen has spent years ploughing through Russian history. He has an exemplary, gripping stylistic ability. In this new book it seems as if a new John Gunther, who opened up the Soviet world to us in Inside Russia Today, has arisen. He sketches the difficult transition period of Russia under Gorbachev and Yeltsin.