Gorbachev's Gamble (eBook)

Andrei Grachev was former political adviser and last official spokesman of Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Gorbachev Years: A Chronology vii

Preface and Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

1 Preparing the Change 9

Dual-Track Diplomacy 9

The Military-Diplomatic Complex 17

'Moles' in the Corridors of Power 24

Cracks in the Monolith 34

2 Ambitions and Illusions of the 'New Political Thinking' 43

Training for Leadership 43

First Exercises in Foreign Policy 52

Building the New Team 58

Summits in Paris and Geneva 62

A 'Tail' of Soviet Diplomacy? 66

'New Thinking' or Ideology Revisited? 70

From Philosophy to Politics 75

Reykjavik - 'the Failed Summit'? 80

'New Political Thinking': Rules and Tools 86

3 Breaking the Ice 93

Untying the Reykjavik 'Package' 93

Withdrawing from Afghanistan and Retiring from the 'Third World' 100

'Abandoning' Eastern Europe 114

Destroying the Berlin Wall 131

4 Up to the Peak and Down the Slope 163

Gorbachev's 'Anti-Fulton' Speech at the UN 163

1989 - the Year of 'the Great Turn' 169

Malta - a Belated Triumph 176

On the Other Bank of the Rubicon 184

The War in the Gulf and Shevardnadze's

Resignation 191

The G7 in London: The Summit of a Last (Lost) Chance 200

5 The Winds of Change 214

Notes 234

Bibliography 257

Index 261

"A major contribution to our understanding of the last years of the
Soviet Union and to the end of the Cold War."

Australian Journal of Political Science



"The stand-off between Russia and the west over military
intervention in Georgia in 2008 raised the spectre of a new cold
war between the world's military and economic powers. The timing of
Andrei Grachev's book on the events that led to the end of the old
Cold War, therefore, could not be better. Gorbachev's Gamble
is a sympathetic and detailed analysis of how the last Soviet
leader's 'new political thinking' brought about the break-up of the
Warsaw Pact and of the Soviet Union itself in 1991."

Europe-Asia Studies

"This gripping book is one that deserves the attention of
students of politics, international relations and history."

Slavonic and Eastern European Review

"The ultimate, definitive and conclusive account of one of the
most transformative periods in modern history. As we continue to be
shaped by the consequences of the critical years examined by
Grachev, we shall continue to learn from this masterful
book."

Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University

"Andrei Grachev, an important member of Gorbachev's foreign
policy team, writes as a participant-observer. His penetrating and
well-informed account of the end of the Cold War, as seen from the
Soviet side, offers a subtle and persuasive interpretation which
will be a valuable corrective to much Western conventional
wisdom."

Archie Brown, University of Oxford