Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War Book

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies: Marshall Shulman Prize 2001; An intriguing "intellectual portrait" of a generation of Soviet reformers, this book is also a fascinating case study of how ideas can change the course of history. In most analyses of the Cold War´s end the ideological aspects of Gorbachev´s "new thinking" are treated largely as incidental to the broader considerations of power -as gloss on what was essentially a retreat forced by crisis and decline. Robert English makes a major contribution by demonstrating that Gorbachev´s foreign policy was in fact the result of an intellectual revolution. English analyzes the rise of a liberal policy-academic elite and its impact on the Cold War´s end. English worked in the archives of the USSR Foreign Ministry and also gained access to the restricted collections of leading foreign-policy institutes. He also conducted nearly 400 interviews with Soviet intellectuals and policy makers -from Khrushchev- and Brezhnev-era Politburo members to Perestroika-era notables such as Eduard Shevardnadze and Gorbachev himself. English traces the rise of a "Westernizing" worldview from the post-Stalin years, through a group of liberals in the late1960s­70s, to a circle of close advisers who spurred Gorbachev´s most radical reforms.Read More