Inside the Soviet Alternate Universe

Contents

Foreword: Myths That Mislead

Jack F. Matlock Jr.

Author’s Preface

Part One. Reminiscence: Ten Years Inside the Empire

Introduction to Part One

1. Initial Encounters with the Other Side

2. Working Levels of the Soviet Regime

3. Stagnation and Disaffection

4. The Beginning of the End

Part Two. Reflection: A Neglected Psychological Perspective

Introduction to Part Two

5. Comprehending Another Political World

6. Formation of the Soviet Conception of Governance

7. The Conception’s Evolution Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev

8. Gorbachev and the Conception’s Terminal Phase

Part Three. Relevance: Psychological Milieu and Current Foreign Policy Issues

Introduction to Part Three

9. Reappraising the Cold War’s End and the Empire’s Fall I: Key Pieces of the Puzzle

10. Reappraising the Cold War’s End and the Empire’s Fall II: Fitting the Pieces Together

11. Empire and Democracy in Post-Soviet Russia

12. An Analytical Blind Spot and Its Consequences

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“Overall, Inside the Soviet Alternate Universe is a sophisticated, well-reasoned argument about the demise of the USSR and the problems of dealing with different mindsets and cultures. As such, Combs’s book deserves study by historians, analysts, and politicians alike.”

—Jonathan M. House, History: Reviews of New Books