Evil Empire: The Soviet Union during the time of the Cold War

By James Everley

From the final, paranoid years of Joseph Stalin's rule to the last day the hammer and sickle flew over the Kremlin, Evil Empire offers a sweeping and immersive journey through the tumultuous history of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Beginning with Ronald Reagan's famous speech that branded the USSR an "evil empire," this narrative explores the complex reality behind the Iron Curtain. It chronicles the origins of the Cold War, the brutal consolidation of the Eastern Bloc through "salami tactics," and the suffocating grip of Stalin's police state, a period defined by the grotesque cult of personality, the infamous "Doctors' Plot," and the vast, hidden continent of suffering known as the Gulag Archipelago.

The chronicle then navigates the dramatic pendulum swings of the post-Stalin era. Witness the brief glimmer of hope during the "Khrushchev Thaw," a period of de-Stalinization that saw the USSR stun the world by launching Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into space. This era of contradictions also saw the ruthless crushing of the Hungarian Revolution and brought the world to the precipice of nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Delve into the long, grey "Era of Stagnation" under Leonid Brezhnev, a time of quiet social contracts, rampant corruption, and a gerontocracy that led the superpower into a state of paralysis, a calm shattered by the invasion of Czechoslovakia to silence the "Prague Spring."

This comprehensive account dissects the core institutions that defined Soviet power. Explore the inner workings of the KGB, the "sword and shield of the party," from its global espionage and "active measures" to its systematic suppression of the courageous dissident movement. Stand in awe of the Red Machine, the colossal Soviet military complex that consumed the economy, from its nuclear-armed submarines prowling under the polar ice cap to the massive tank armies poised to roll across Europe. The narrative unflinchingly examines the system's greatest challenges, including the fragile period of d tente and the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan, the "Soviet Vietnam" that became a bleeding wound for a dying system.

Experience the dramatic and breathtaking final act of the Soviet superpower. The rise of Mikhail Gorbachev unleashes the revolutionary forces of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), policies intended to save the empire but which instead opened a Pandora's box of nationalism and popular discontent. The Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe exposes the rot at the system's core, while the "Sinatra Doctrine" allows the nations of the Eastern Bloc to break away, culminating in the iconic fall of the Berlin Wall. From the last, desperate stand of the hardliners during the August Coup of 1991 to the final shattering of the Union, this book charts the rapid, stunning, and inexorable collapse of one of the most formidable empires in modern history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DXFM9TXX
• ISBN13: 9798311057196
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"