{"product_id":"august-coup-the-destruction-of-the-soviet-union-and-the-making-of-new-russia-1985-1991","title":"August Coup: The Destruction of the Soviet Union \u0026 the Making of New Russia 1985-1991","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom acclaimed historian and author of \u003ci\u003eKremlin Winter\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlood on the Snow,\u003c\/i\u003e comes a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia's recent history: the August Coup.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Beginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv's capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv's well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union--business fraud, government corruption, organized crime, and interethnic conflict--increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Linking the years from the coup itself to today's Russia under Vladimir Putin, \u003ci\u003eThe August Coup\u003c\/i\u003e is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics for ever.","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"August Coup : The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991","offer_id":46058023092421,"sku":null,"price":75.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/august-coup-the-destruction-of-the-soviet-union-and-the-making-of-new-russia-1985-1991","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}