{"product_id":"the-shortest-history-of-the-soviet-union-9780231207171","title":"The Shortest History of the Soviet Union","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries came to power in the war-torn Russian Empire in a way that defied all predictions, including their own. Scarcely a lifespan later, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as accidentally as it arose. The decades between witnessed drama on an epic scale--the chaos and hope of revolution, famines and purges, hard-won victory in history's most destructive war, and worldwide geopolitical conflict, all entwined around the dream of building a better society. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book is a lively and authoritative distillation of this complex history, told with vivid details, a grand sweep, and wry wit. The acclaimed historian Sheila Fitzpatrick chronicles the Soviet Age--its rise, reign, and unexpected fall, as well as its afterlife in today's Russia. She underscores the many ironies of the Soviet experience: An ideology that claimed to offer humanity the reins of history wrangled with contingency. An avowedly internationalist and anti-imperialist state birthed an array of nationalisms. And a vision of transcending economic and social inequality and injustice gave rise to a country that was, in its way, surprisingly normal. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMoving seamlessly from Lenin to Stalin to Gorbachev to Putin, \u003ci\u003eThe Shortest History of the Soviet Union\u003c\/i\u003e provides an indispensable guide to one of the twentieth century's great powers and the enduring fascination it still exerts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSheila Fitzpatrick is Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of Russian History at the University of Chicago, honorary professor at the University of Sydney, and a professor in the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University. Her many books include \u003ci\u003eEveryday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s\u003c\/i\u003e (1999), \u003ci\u003eThe Russian Revolution\u003c\/i\u003e (third edition, 2007), and\u003ci\u003e On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics\u003c\/i\u003e (2015), and she is a regular contributor to the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50646145499410,"sku":"9780231207171","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c55b8c92-70bd-496d-98e1-519b2cbda99c.jpg?v=1733170829","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-shortest-history-of-the-soviet-union-9780231207171","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}