Martin McCaulay Knihy

Jeden z nejúspěšnějších diktátorů 20. století. Publikace představuje analýzu celé stalinské éry, zabývá se kultem jeho osobnosti, proč mohla být tak úspěšná a jaký je její vliv i dnes. Stejně jako u předešlé publikace z této série i zde čtenář najde kromě samotného výkladu i řadu citovaných historických dokumentů, které mu mohou pomoci vytvořit si širší obraz o osobnosti Stalina i jeho době. Nechybí také chronologický přehled a podrobné mapky.

This study explores the fundamental questions facing students: who was responsible for the Cold War? Was it inevitable or could the whole episode have been avoided? Was Stalin genuinely interested in a postwar agreement? Was a great opportunity lost by the world powers, one which could have brought immense benefits to both sides as well as to the rest of the world...? Since publication of the First Edition in 1983 the world has changed out of all recognition -- the Cold War has ended, communism has collapsed and 1991 saw the final demise of the Soviet Union. It is in the light of these recent events, and the latest historiography, that Martin McCauley has revised, and greatly expanded, his original text.

Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Stalinism still casts its shadow over post-Communist Russia. For the Second Edition of this popuar text, the author re-examines this remarkable phenomenon in the light of the latest research findings of the Russian archives. As with all the books in the series Martin McCauley addresses the key questions facing students, and also takes into account the vigorous scholarly debate between the old, dominant totalitarian interpretation of Stalinism and the alternative school of thought put forward by the "social historians'' in the 1980s.

In this book specialists address the main problems facing Gorbachev and are cautiously optimistic about his chances of modernising the USSR. It is absolutely essential that results in 1986 and 1987 are good otherwise he will face failure. He has been faced with serious problems in coming to power; how has he fared?