Russia/USSR/Russia: The Drive and Drift of a Superstate

The Soviet regime was not toppled but fell from its own weight, Lewin declares. He describes the U.S.S.R. as an outwardly successful colossus that waged Cold War and expanded its empire, while its self-satisfied leaders ignored pressing problems-overcentralization, fossilized planning unresponsive to consumer needs, parasitical bureaucracy, a poorly paid, unproductive workforce. Noting that a conservative, deeply rural Russia persisted until the late 1950s, Lewin, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that the Soviet collapse was hastened when the urbanization of the last 40 years came up against stagnant bureaucratic absolutism. The post-Communist system, he predicts, will be ``a national dish, a la russe, and not necessarily ominous.'' Welding 15 new and previously published essays on topics ranging from the Soviet civil war to Gorbachev and ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, this perceptive study puts into sharp perspective the choices facing Russia today. (Feb.)