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An astute observer of the Soviet Union, Bill Daniels collects here his observations of political change in the USSR over a twenty-five-year period. Complete with a new introduction, conclusion and explanatory notes, these essays offer a moment-by-moment picture of the decline and fall of the Communist state. Beginning with the era of impasse from Brezhnev to Chernenko, Daniels then traces the beginnings of reform initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the crisis and failure of perestroika, and the tribulations of Boris Yeltsin's government. Capturing the weaknesses of past and present regimes, while illustrating the difficulties of anticipating the course of events in Russia, Daniels's commentaries will have a central place in the ongoing debate about the failure of Western scholarship to predict the Soviet collapse and its aftermath. Specialists, students, and general readers alike will find his work a stimulating point of departure for considering the Soviet and post-Soviet paradox.