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Vladislav M. Zubok, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War From Stalin to Gorbachev. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Pp. 488. $39.95.
There is risk of hubris, à la Francis Fukuyama's The End of History, in overstating the finality and implications of the failure of the Soviet empire. Vladislav Zubok himself avoids it, but might lead a reader into that temptation. The book shows the autonomy and latitude of Soviet leadership at every stage, which has often been blurred by American ideological assumptions about the enemy's grand strategy. Zubok' s sources reveal shortsighted and self-focused Politburo leaders, usually unable to capitalize on Cold War opportunities - not the wily, scheming villains of James Bond films and our worst fears. Brezhnev emerges as the surprise hero: the WWII...