Political analysis of the now defunct USSR, in particular the Brezjnev period: all the power lay in the hands of the highly centralized communist party: no political parties, no market, no autonomous organizations in the social and cultural fields.
The most importants jobs were occupied by Russians.
The top was a coherent team, that recognised the aspirations of the nomenklatura.
The population knew that mass revolts were nearly impossible and that the party had the military power to crush them. On the other hand, the party made it perfectly clear that the unpredictable atrocities of the Stalin era would not come back.
It showed the satellite states that no foreign power would support effectively their nationalist ambitions.
The opening to the West gave new oxygen to a faltering economy and permitted to import much needed technology, while on the other hand the party continued to help their sister parties all over the world.
As always, a perceptive and thorough investigation of a political system by the author who correctly predicted that the USSR would fall apart, if the power of the communist party would be broken.
A must or historians and for those interested in the history of the USSR and Russia.

There's not much out there to read about what life was like in the USSR--at least not much I've found. This book is an interesting change. It's about the lives of maybe ten families that share common courtyard in Odessa from about 1935 to 1950. It centers around Iona Degtyar, the local Communist Party boss. He is a fascinating character, the ultimate workaholic who expects one hundred and ten percent from everyone. He has no tolerance for anything less than perfection, which makes him rather scary at times. There is a subtle but gradual process of ideological decay throughout the book, as characters' illusions about Communism in the USSR and Degtyar himself are shattered by the tribulations of war and a series of deportations.

I am continually pleased with each and every fabozzi book I buy. The man is prolific and always provides you with real data, great overviews, and commentary by leading people in the field. This book is no exception.

The Crimean War was fought not just on the peninsula with that name. It extended deep in the European heart and fighting took place on the Pacific and the Baltic. Even in the Caribbean the clash of interest between the United States and the United Kingdom brought those nations close to a military engagement for the Mosquitia (Mosquito Coast in Central America, from Belize -formerly called British Honduras- passing through Honduras to Nicaragua). Wimfried Baumgart offers the best book I've read on the subject. Clear and concise, the text covers not only the military aspects of the war (where the famous charge of the British Light Brigade and the Russian defence of Sebastopol took place), but also the geopolitical factors that surrounded the conflict. British, French and Turkish fought the Russians, but American (who sided with the Russians) and Austrian, Swedish, Spanish and Prussian attitudes toward the conflict are also covered. A marvelous piece of history, this is an excelent read on a conflict which resembles a real World War.

Over a decade has passed since "The Crisis Years" was published. Since then, additional details about The Cuban Missile Crisis as well as JFK's personal life have floated into public view. Yet, despite the availability of this "new" information, even a cursory re-reading of excerpts from "The Crisis Years" confirms how accurate, comprehensive and riveting this account of two Cold War titans remains.

Moving at the fast clip of a smoothly written novel, this exhaustive summary of the Kennedy Years focuses on the thorny foreign policy issues that beset the Kennedy Team, some possibly of their own making. Beschloss does a wonderful job fleshing out the pros and cons of particular policy decisions as well as the personal interactions between the president and some of his key advisers, and offers plenty of nuance with regard to the nature of communications between Washington and Moscow during the Missile Crisis.

Perhaps the biggest single revelation in "The Crisis Years" was JFK's relationship with "Dr. Feelgood" and the extent to which the president was medicated on a regular basis, even as he prepared for the Vienna Summit. In our post-Watergate, post-Clinton era, one wonders whether public disclosure of JFK's steady reliance on pharmaceuticals would have been enough to push Nixon into the "win" column - and what that would have meant in terms of executing plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, with all its fallout.

"The Crisis Years" has already stood the test of time. It will continue to do so for years to come. I recommend it to anyone who wants the unadorned facts - good and bad - about America's most legendary president.

Imagine time-traveling with a smart gentleman who is energetic, enthusiastic, sociable, and just happened to have lived there 'then.' This is the seamless, appropriately elaborate, and richly detailed adventure one experiences in reading this book. Troyat called this book a mere "sentimental promenade,' but he was much too modest. Biographer of Flaubert, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Elizabeth I and others, he had a pre-Revolutionary Russian early childhood, and the recollections of his (refugees-to-France) family members. In this book he enthusiastically and carefully recreates the sights, sounds, smells of daily life. The peasantry, workers and their everpresent sufferings and struggles, commerce, law, food, the gentry, the tsar and his retinue, social life, the hapless serfs, plus plans, hopes, and dreams. The chapter "Moscow's Many Faces" is reminiscence, and very informative. The research is the backbone of this work, which is greatly enriched and informed by Troyat's emotional ties to -- and sensory recall of -- the time and place.

I have to admit I only read the Russian original, so I was pretty puzzled and pleased to discover that author Vladimir Orlov acted as a translator of his own work. When I grew up in the early 80s' Soviet Russia, _Danilov: The Violist_ was a must read for all intellectual young Russian people, a true cult book. Combining bitter realism with humorous fantasy in quite an entertaining way, the story focuses on a gifted musician (Danilov) struggling with both his creative inhibitions and the bureaucratic ones, those of the strictly controlled Soviet artistic world. Danilov's gradual discovery of his own talent is something any creative person can relate to, be they American, Russian or Japanese -- even if you neglect the fact that Danilov is, in fact... half demon. Not a traditional ugly evil-doer one foot in Hell, but just the unlucky result of a (quite common, if you believe Orlov :-)) love affair between a human and a demon. As such, he belongs neither on Earth nor in the Next (sort of parallel) World and has to deal with both -- defending himself, his art and the relationships he develops against both worlds' cynical bureaucratic systems. On the safe Earth, Danilov's creativity and honesty are tested -- away from it, in a magical universe that just for fun copycats human development and culture, his very existence is doubted and endangered. In all his tribulations, Danilov has to choose between honesty and career, hate and understanding, love and betrayal. While the novel can't boast any of the universal philosophical revelations of Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita -- its obvious predecessor in style and subject matter -- _Danilov: The Violist_ is funny, easy to read and makes the reader think. To a non-Russian reader the book has an added plus of giving a very realistic and detailed picture of the everyday life in the 60s-80s Soviet Union, full of humor and understanding. In three words -- funny, honest, and cleverly written.

I read this book many years ago in Russian, now that I have grown up I am reading it again. It is wonderfuly written. I do not know about the english version, but the Russian verson was just brilliant. Can't put it down, the royal dances to the horrific changes in Russian history, tied in with the roamance. I love this book. Reccomend it to anyone. Enjoy!

This is the book to get if you are an Oistrakh fan, enough said.

I picked up Manheim's book by chance during a visit to the United States and it was indeed a revelation.

As a Ph.D student in communications, I have read my fair share of books but Manheim's volume is a standout.

It is an extradordinary piece of scholarship the way he has tied all the different threads of this growing phenomenon together to give us a fairly sophisticated, yet extremely readable analysis of what we are seeing today.

Though there have been the occasional article or monograph written on this area before, no one has traced the evolution of this concept so thoroughly or assembled such an impressive number of case studies about corporate campaigns.

Apart from this, Manheim's book has a number of other strengths that make it quite compelling.

As a communications scholar of some note,Manheim understably, devotes considerable time and attention to analysis of the communications strategies employed by the antagonists of a company. His discussion of the activist need to define "the moral high ground" is fascinating.

Another strength is his discussion of codes of conduct and how activists use them against companies. Codes of conduct based campaigning by activists is not a terribly well understood phenomena within the corporate sector which is surprising given the proliferation of these charters, codes or compacts.

The space that Manheim devotes to shareholder activism is also intriguing given the growing efforts of activists to target companies through key stakeholders such as institutional investors and the like.

All of this marks Manheim's book as a must-have for anyone working in a corporation who is in a corporate affairs, public affairs, human resources, investor relations, marketing and especially higher management function.