A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia

Alexander N. Yakovlev

Yale University Press, Apr 1, 2004 - History - 274 pages

The main architect of the concept of perestroika under Gorbachev, Alexander N. Yakovlev played a unique role in the transformation of the Soviet Union. Now, drawing on his own experiences and on his privileged access to state and Party archives, he reflects on the evils of the system that shaped the country he loves. "A searing book."-Bill Keller, New York Times "Well documented. . . . [Yakovlev] provides a systematic and keenly insightful analysis of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet system up to its collapse. . . . This is a book that deserves to be widely read."-Aurel Braun, Globe and Mail (Toronto) "Among the best 250 pages you will ever read on Stalin."-Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Times "A fierce, raging indictment of the Soviet system."-Virginia Quarterly Review "The quest for truth and justice erupts with explosive force in [this]."-David Pryce-Jones, National Review

What people are saying

Review: A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia

User Review  - Elyse Martin - Goodreads

How can a century of violence come across like some horrible bureaucratic list of names and dates? I don't know, but Yakovlev did it. I'd read "The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn and cried through ...

Review: A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia

User Review  - Ryan - Goodreads

Excellent. Very revealing and well researched. It bings out some very horrifying truths about the entire Soviet period.

About the author

Alexander N. Yakovlev is president of the International Democracy Foundation in Moscow and chair of Russia's Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression. He was Soviet ambassador to Canada from 1973 to 1983, then returned to the Soviet Union to become the main architect of perestroika under Gorbachev.

Stephen V. Bittner is assistant professor of history at Sonoma State University. He lives in Santa Rosa, CA. Anthony Austin is retired senior editor for the" New York Times Magazine" and former Moscow correspondent for the" New York Times," He lives in Palo Alto, CA.

Paul Hollander is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and center associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His books include Political Pilgrims, The Many Faces of Socialism, and Soviet and American Society: A Comparison.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia
• Author: Alexander N. Yakovlev
• Translated by: Anthony Austin
• Contributor: Paul Hollander
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0300103220, 9780300103229
• Length: 274 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union