From Brezhnev to Gorbachev : infighting in the Kremlin /

Hazan presents a historical account of the problem of leadership succession in the Soviet Union and a detailed study of the repeated recent succession experiences the Soviet Union has undergone in the transition from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. It ends with a relatively superficial account of Gorbachev's early efforts to consolidate his leadership position. Since the focus is on the political battles that Hazan asserts were waged within the Kremlin during this transition period, he is careful to note that he has no access to inside information but has depended almost entirely on a close analysis of ``the official Soviet discourse-speeches, articles, party and governmental announcements, reports on the movement of the Soviet leaders, and so on.'' His analysis of the Soviet succession problem contains much detail, some of which could be considered conjectural, but this is a normal feature of such research given the closed nature of the Soviet political system. Since Hazan focuses mainly on recent events, there are no established books that are similar. Previous books on the Soviet succession problem have tended to conjecture about what was then a future transition; this one attempts to document the transition in retrospect. Upper-division and graduate student and general readers.-C. Barner-Barry, University of Maryland, Baltimore County