Gill, Stalinism; Mccauley, Gorbachev

Abstract

These two books examine the history of the Soviet Union/Russia over the last half-century. Their approach is quite different, however. While Graeme Gill in Stalinism attempts to study a phenomenon, Martin McCauley focuses his attention on a personality. Thus, it is difficult to assess the books in a comparative manner.

Stalinism appears here in its second edition. The author indicates that he has not changed the arguments that were presented in the earlier volume. In fact, new archival information has been provided to support those arguments. He has added a chapter, however, and updated the bibliography to include material that was not available at the time of the first edition.