Author Description

The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Politburo is the definitive history and political analysis of this remarkable institution. Extensive use of new Soviet sources has permitted the authors to provide a comprehensive analysis of the way in which the Politburo operated and a sociological analysis of its membership. The history of the Politburo is presented in a lucid and rigorous account that charts its development from creation by Lenin in 1919 to sidetracking by Gorbachev in 1990: an organization that, as the authors state, "subjected the whole of the USSR to its ruthless dictatorship, but itself bowed time and again to the leader of its own making".