[.ca] Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire (ISBN 0679751513)

From Amazon.com:
Ever wonder what it would be like to witness a series of historical turning points? Just ask Michael Dobbs--or read his book. As a longtime foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, Dobbs personally witnessed many of the great events in the final decade of the Iron Curtain, from the 1980 Warsaw strikes to Boris Yeltsen's heroic defiance of a Communist coup in 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev is a dominant figure on these pages, but his role in the Cold War endgame is enigmatic. Dobbs calls him "a strange amalgam of genius and incompetence, idealism and egotism, naive and cunning." The verdict on Dobbs is much clearer: his journalism will instruct future historians.

Pretty good, but missed a few points:
A very readable book; made some excellent points. One thing Dobbs ignores completely, though, was the actual breaking down of the Berlin Wall by people wielding hammers and other instruments. The Wall had already been opened, yes, but the sight of people demolishing it, flashed around the world on TV, was of immense symbolic significance and it accordingly accelerated the downfall of Communism. Also, here's some food for thought: Andropov wasn't picked to lead the USSR as a "caretaker"; his death was untimely. Everyone had expected him to live for decades. Likewise, John Paul I died an untimely death after only two weeks as Pope. How might the history Dobbs describes have unfolded differently with Andropov in the Kremlin and an Italian Pope in the Vatican throughout the 1980's? Without John Paul II's protective influence, could Solidarity have survived to lead Poland into the 1990s? Maybe not....

Great read. Compels you to turn the page.:
This is a terrific book. It makes history come alive through the people, big and small, who caused Communism to collapse from within the Spviet Union. It is easy to feel you are there as the pages replay the key events during the 80's and early 90's. I was most impressed by the author's ability to craft this epic into a gripping, moving story. Well done!!

Excellent overview; compellingly written; well documented:
Many threads contributed to the story of the downfall of the Soviet empire, and Dobbs ties them together nicely. Example: Matthias Rust's light-plane landing in Red Square, evading or confounding Russian air defenses. How could this contribute to the downfall of the empire? Because it contributed to Gorbachev's distrust of his military brass, whom he thought were trying to embarrass him. This among other incidents, like initial efforts to lie about the Chernobyl nuclear accident, cemented Gorbachev's belief that glasnost was necessary so that the popular will (presumed by Gorbachev to be on his side) could prevail over the entrenched party bureaucracy, who were trying to slow down Gorbachev's reforms. But once glasnost (akin to free speech) started, there was no stopping the will of the people for real change. Dobbs cites first-person Russian sources extensively (and footnotes to them) and seems to do a good job of sorting through what is accurate versus self-serving in those sources.

A good book but .........:
I just finished reading the book 'Down with Big Brother'. First, let me say that I found the book well written and informative. The statement on page 251 though regarding events in Beijing in 1989 that '......it was clear to everybody that several thousand deaths had occurred within the immediate vacinity (of Tiananmen Square)" is incorrect. It does not square with what I saw first hand that evening and with other reliable sources and thus should be corrected. To explain. I was living in Beijing at the time and was at Muxidi, an area east of the Gongzufen and west of the Square as the Chinese army was moving though that evening on its way to the square. I saw many people who had been shot and then carried away by civilians on the 3 wheeled bicycles common in Beijing. Later in the evening I also went (by bicycle) towards the square. I got as far as Xidan St. which is about a 5-10 minute bicycle ride east from the square. During the night I spoke with people on the street and could get a good approximation of the number of people injured during the evening at various locations along Chang An Avenue. More importantly, I knew the locations where shootings by the army had been the fiercest. I believe that Muxidi (followed perhaps by Jianguomen to the east of Tianamen) saw the most casualites. The following day I went with a Chinese friend to the hospital closest to Muxidi. An acquaintence was said to be wounded and my friend went there in search of him. Inside the hospital (I did not enter) , he counted some 35 corpses. The doctors told him that some bodies had already been taken away by relatives. These people killed by the army were from the site of what was at least among the most deadliest in the city. Assuming that there were a dozen like that (although I think it likely there were not more than a half dozen) , the casuality figure would be in the 500-600 range. This is a high estimate. More likely, the number is lower. This is certainly a number's game and ! certainly does not serve well those who were killed. There was no need for anyone to be killed that evening. To say that thousands died however is absolutely wrong and does this otherwise well written book a disservice. Should there be future printings of your book, historical accuracy would require that this section be revised. Regards, Joe Ureneck

A Vivid and Compelling Narrative:
This is a compelling and vivid description of the events that led to the toatal disintegration of the Soviet Empire, from the collapse of its East European satellite states to the impolosion of the USSR itself. Dobbs was an eyewitness to many events described in the book, and he writes accurately and convincingly. The beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire is traced to the final years of Brezhnev's rule, with its stagnation, over the hill, senile politicians, and the tragic decision to invade Afghanistan. Because this is a very rich journalistic account, the reder should be prepared to deal with a myriad of Eastern European proper names that occur throughout the book. Still, this is a very sophisticated, historically-informed journalism, and if you want to know about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, you owe it to yourself to read this book.