Under the General Editorship of Dr Harold Shukman of St Antony's College, Oxford, these volumes are written by leading scholars for a student and non-specialist readership. Particular attention is paid throughout to the role of Russia in its wider European context. When the first edition of this book was published the name Gorbachev did not even appear in the index and the Soviet Union was a Superpower; today, only a few years later, Gorbachev has gone, the USSR has dissolved and the great Soviet experiment is over. How? Why? Martin McCauley has reworked and greatly expanded his book to answer these questions. His text now provides an analytical account of the entire span of the Soviet years, from the origins of the USSR in the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. Provides the conclusion under Gorbachev to the history of the Stalin, Khruschev and Brezhnev years; and puts the recent turbulent events in Eastern Europe into their full historical context. Written by one of this country's leading authorities on Modern Soviet Affairs: Martin McCauley is a frequent broadcaster and 'Soviet watcher' on such programmes as Today and Newsnight. Takes full account of the new research and archival material that has flooded out from Russia since liberalisation. The first revision of this extremely successful survey since publication in 1981.