Soviet Union Book Review

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The action begins during the revolution by the workers in Russia against little reserve for wheat in the companies. However, the Russian leaders thought that the demonstration would subside. They grow in number and out of control for the government. A country that is not able to feed herself will have to bear some demonstrations from the citizens. According to the author, such a challenge led to the revolution from the citizens. There were efforts by the leaders of the Soviet Union to correct the situation. For example, they introduced the Period of New Economic Policies (1921-1929), where they tried to address the issues affecting the population of the time. The issue was mainly the drop in the level of country’s productivity. It led to losing of jobs in the companies and no products for the consumers. As a result, we have the period detailing the strategy of first Five-Year Plan. In this instance, the formation of the Soviet Union had come up with plans revamp the dwindling the economy.

The events reached climax during the period of high Stalinism. During the Stalin Order, the Soviet leaders applied different approaches to achieve the goals of the union. However, these methods could not help in effective governance. There was a need to view the problems of the time from a broader perspective. Kenez gives his view of the achievement of Joseph Stalin as the head of USSR. At the same time, he reveals the shortcomings of the approach which does not put into consideration the country’s existence with the west. Therefore, the Stalinist order led to the pathetic life with the capitalist west. Therefore, Kenez creates the climax of the events when he talks about the failures of the Stalinist methods in changing the fortunes of the Russian leaders. As a result, he suggests various ways to correct the mistakes. One way to achieve this is to govern without the Stalinist methods. From the book, the Stalinists order led to the great and patriotic wars.

The author of the book provides an excellent survey of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. He critically analyzes the activities of the leaders of the time. Moreover, it is clear that the author has insight on the history of Russia. As opposed to the proponents of the theory of inevitability, Kenez talks of a negotiation as a way to achieve the peaceful coexistence of both sides of the USSR. The author, therefore, succeeds in realizing the goals in writing his book. He dwells his arguments in an organized and logical sequence of the events. However, there exist errors that the author should have put in consideration and given clarification to the readers. For example, Kenez talks a relatively short-lived occupation of Austria (Kenez, 2007). He says in the book that unlike Germany, Austria had not been divided into zones (Kenez, 2007). It becomes an error because Austria was divided into zones administered by the Soviet Union, France, United Kingdom and the United States. This error may have been attributed to the knowledge that Austria government controlled the capital with the authority of the Russians until July 1945 (Kenez, 2007). The second error is from the Conference on Security Cooperation in Europe. According to the author, "in 1975, European and American diplomats met in Helsinki for a European security meeting. On this instance, the contracting parties signed three sets of treaties." (Kenez, 2007) This statement is not true, according to an article by Charles Stefan, the Presidents of the countries signed the agreement (Stefan 2000), and not the diplomats as said by the author. All in all, the book is a good read, with Kenez giving his views on the developments after the formation of the Soviet Union, and subsequent changes to realize good governance. Therefore, I would read this book because of its rich description of the events.

References

Kenez, P. (2007). A history of the Soviet Union from the beginning to the end. Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

Stefan, C. G. (2000). A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End. Mediterranean Quarterly, 11(2), 136-137. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/20791/pdf.