The collapse of a single-party system : the disintegration of the CPSU /

Gill (Univ. of Sydney) offers a mainly historical account of the decline and collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. Chapter 1 provides a brief survey of the history and role of the Party. The concluding chapter details the events leading directly to the demise of the CPSU in 1991. The other six chapters are devoted to the Party's travails in attempting to adjust to Gorbachev's reform program. Here the author concentrates on the intra-Party debates dealing with the effects of perestroika on the CPSU's role in Soviet society. Gill's research is meticulous and exhaustive; however, he tends to treat the intra-Party debates in terms of abstract issues, independently of the interests, factions, and personalities underlying the conflicts. Further, he fails to explain adequately the inherent weakness of the CPSU vis-`a-vis the society that made the Party vulnerable to processes of change. The books adds little to our understanding of the Gorbachev era, but the extensive quotations from the perestroika debates will make the volume useful for reference purposes. Faculty. R. J. Mitchell; University of New Orleans