Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire - Rilegato

Sebestyen, Victor

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 029785223X ISBN 13: 9780297852230

Casa editrice: W&N, 2009

Riassunto

For more than 40 years after the Second World War the Iron Curtain divided Europe physically, with 300 km of walls and barbed wire fences; ideologically, between communism and capitalism; psychologically, between people imprisoned under totalitarian dictatorships and their neighbours enjoying democratic freedoms; and militarily, by two mighty, distrustful power blocs, still fighting the cold war. East-West rivalry and a cruelly divided continent seemed to be unalterable facts of life. Few statesmen, diplomats, soldiers or thinkers imagined these certainties would change in their lifetimes. At the start of 1989, ten European nations were still Soviet vassal states. By the end of the year, one after another, they had thrown off communism, declared national independence, and embarked on the road to democracy. One of history's most brutal empires was on its knees. Poets who had been languishing in jails became vice presidents. When the Berlin Wall fell on a chilly November night it seemed as though the open wounds of the cruel twentieth century would at last begin to heal. The Year of Revolutions appeared as a beacon of hope for oppressed people elsewhere who dared to dream that they too could free themselves.

In a dizzying few months of almost entirely peaceful revolutions the people's will triumphed over tyranny. An entire way of life was swept away along with a half dozen incompetent, corrupt and at times vicious dictatorships. It happened with little violence, apart from a few days in Romania. Now, twenty years on, Victor Sebestyen reassesses this decisive moment in modern history.

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Recensione:

Victor Sebestyen's vivid panoramic work is a fine account... the writing is taut, the scene-setting dramatic, giving the book an almost cinematic feel (Adam LeBor SUNDAY TIMES)

Sebestyen has made an excellent job of organising his disparate material, so that the reader can recapture, with the same sense of bafflement and elation, the events that made the Europe we live in - and after 20 years he can add understanding too. (Michael Fry SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

the tale fair rips along... a solid piece of storytelling of an exhillarating and enspiriting moment of history (Misha Glenny EVENING STANDARD)

Victor Sebestyen brilliantly pulls together the events that led to the fall of the Soviet empire... it still takes your breath away 20 years on. (Richard Beeston THE SPECTATOR)

digestible and entertaining (THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

pacy and vivid... a considerable achievement... [Sebestyen] is also a thoroughly professional writer with a gift not only for exposition but also evocation. (Anthony Howard DAILY TELEGRAPH)

a thrilling read... Sebestyen is good at sketching the leading players but he also succinctly conveys what life was like for the ordinary citizens (Christopher Sylvester DAILY EXPRESS)

Sebestyen has got the pace and the balance just right (THE SCOTSMAN)

rollicking mix of high drama and sordid reality... conventional history, spiced with telling quotations. (THE INDEPENDENT)

a compelling and illuminating account of a great drama in the history of our times which showed one again that ordinary men and women really can change the world. (Jonathan Dimbleby THE MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Descrizione del libro:

How the Soviet Union's European empire collapsed in a dizzying few months of revolutions that changed the world.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: W&N
• Data di pubblicazione: 2009
• ISBN 10: 029785223X
• ISBN 13: 9780297852230
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 464