I could not let go of the book; it describes the juiciest aspects of the Soviet Family. It looks like the former Soviet Union was the place to raise a family! I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everybody who is interested in being intellectually stimulated and intrigued by the most prolific author of our time.

Yet another good read. We recommend you read it and own it. Enjoy

The book is not perfect but is one of the best I have read concerning the personalities and stresses on political leaders in the former Soviet Union. A must read for those who desire to be a reconciling peacemaker between our two countries.

You will get the wrong idea from the title. This is NOT a book about private Mafia groups operating inside the Soviet Union. This is a book about how the ENTIRE SOVIET SYSTEM *WAS* A MAFIA operation. The entire leadership and every level of management was SYNONYMOUS with Mafia. You understand nothing about the Soviet Union until you've read this book. Soviet journalist Arkady Vaksberg reports from his own experience reporting on these events throughout the USSR. Everything you thought you knew about WHY the Soviet Union collapsed will be radically transformed after reading this book. It was not bureaucratic red tape mis-managing the economy, nor the laziness and lack of motivation caused by a communist system without reward for private initiative (though those could have destroyed the Soviet economy). In fact, it was an entire system rotting from top to bottom with rampant corruption, such that it was a miracle the Soviet economy did not collapse even before it did. The Soviet nation was what a country would look like if the Mafia created it and permeated every fiber of its being. The book contains tons of details from real-life experiences, which often includes many real-life stories and anectodes, but sometimes makes the book slow going. But its fact-based look inside the Soviet Union pulls back a curtain you've never seen behind before.

... I found this book to be a very powerful resource of information.

The book describes Soviet deception methods and results for every major battle 41-45. In every case,detailed (down to division) maps showing reality and german assessments are provided. It is invaluable for reference and it gives very interesting insights on German defeats.

Soviet Military Intelligence at examines the development of the Role of Military Intelligence during World War II. It looks at the theory that the Red Army started with as the war began and moved on to its slow improvemnt as the war progressed. By mid 1944 the Red Army Intelligence Organs are at thier wartime best and this foundation could be seen for the remainder of the war and on into the Soviet/Russian Army of Tosay.

Must read for Intelligence Proffessionals and those interesed in the German-Soviet battles of WW2.

Having read the first 6 editions of Soviet Military Power (SMP) (published by the DoD) while in the Army, I was interested enough to purchase this annotated and corrected version of the '87 SMP when it first came out. I learned very quickly not to bring it to work. Everyone wanted to borrow or look at it. At I can say is that it was quite an eye opener. It made me wonder what other figures were being fudged.

Having read the first 6 editions of Soviet Military Power (SMP) (published by the DoD) while in the Army, I was interested enough to purchase this annotated and corrected version of the '87 SMP when it first came out. I learned very quickly not to bring it to work. Everyone wanted to borrow or look at it. All I can say is that it was quite an eye opener. It made me wonder what other figures were being fudged.

Thousands of books and PhD disertations chronicled the coming transition from capitalism to communism. A handful, this book being one, mentioned the economic disastor that was the USSR in the 1980's. Remember that Bialer wrote this while the economic textbooks of Paul Samuelson were still held out as the gospel in universities across America. JK Galbraith was also an apologist for the apalling state of communism refering to it as a vibrant and thriving system. And, this, in the 1980's.

Bialer gets it right, communism was collapsing of its own weight. The USSR had to use the CIA beige book to project their own crop yields correctly, nobody wanted what they manufactured except weapons, and technological innovation, such as software development was smothered; all in all a vast waste of human capital. A comparative reference book to read would be "Dismantling Utopia" by Scott Shane. This book, published in the mid 90's, catalogues chapter and verse Bialer's book. Too bad the academy doesn't make this required reading, but the fact that they don't shows how far in the sand they have their "collective" heads.

In this very well written and argued book, James Cracraft examines sweeping changes in Russian architecture in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The author concentrates not only on the architectural reform, which "had proved irreversible" on architectural reforms, but also on historical and cultural processes of the time in Russia and Europe. Furthermore, "The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture" deals not only with the Petrine reform and the new city of St. Petersburg, but also goes beyond that dealing with architectural trends in Muscovite Russia, that preceded the reforms. One of the important questions that Cracraft raises is whether there were any tendencies in Russian architecture of the second half of the 17th century that could possibly cause similar architectural change without Tsar Peter's sometimes violent reformist interventions. Interested with that highly controversial question, the author provides an excellent critique of works by various architectural historians. "The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture" concludes with a survey of 18th and 19th century Russian architecture, which proves irreversibility of the Peter the Great's influences.

The writing is clear, scholarly, and fascinating. Numerous illustrations and figures-photographs, old drawings, designs, and maps, as well as written excerpts from contemporaries and scholars, beautifully support the text. This book will be of great interest of those interested in Russian cultural or architectural history. It will serve as a useful asset to the experts and will fascinate someone who has no prior experience with Russian architectural history, as it will produce many curiosities, which the reader will look to answer by reading other books on this topic.