Uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why Russian nostalgia for empire could lead to repeating past strategies that result in instability, leaving Russia vulnerable to economic downturns - Provided by publisher

"My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would collapse. . . ."?From the Introduction to Collapse of an EmpireThe Soviet Union was an empire in many senses of the word?a vast mix of...