Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" - Nikita Khrushchev, November 17, 1956 In DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, author Michael Dobbs begins his narrative on December 26, 1979 as members of the Soviet Union's ruling Politburo gather to lay before Communist Party General Secretary Brezhnev the final plans for the invasion of Afghanistan. Dobbs ends his narrative at 7:00 PM on December 25, 1991, when General Secretary Gorbachev, in a television address broadcast worldwide, formally dissolved the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It would, perhaps, be too much to expect that the author record all the facts of that 12-year period that related to the dissolution of the Soviet Empire; the resulting book would be huge. Rather, in 451 pages, Dobbs does a splendid job touching on the salient events in chronological order to yield an immensely readable and instructive work of popular history: the Soviet occupation of Kabul (12/79), Solidarity's strike in Gdansk's Lenin Shipyard (8/80), the suppression of Solidarity (12/81), Brezhnev's death (11/82), the shoot down of KAL 007 (9/83), Gorbachev's accesion as General Secretary (3/85), the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Geneva (11/85), Chernobyl (4/86), the first use of Stinger missiles against Soviet aircraft by Afghan mujahedin (9/86), Mathias Rust's farcical penetration of Soviet airspace (5/87), the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan (2/89), the Tbilisi riots (4/89), the resurrection of Solidarity (6/89), the fall of Berlin Wall and the revolt in Prague (11/89), the downfall of Romania's Ceausescu (12/89), Yeltsin's elevation to power (5/90), the Soviet invasion of Vilnius, Lithuania (1/91), and the abortive KGB coup against Gorbachev (8/91). And, of course, thumbnail bios of the personalities who played crucial roles, including Walesa, Jaruzelski, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin. All this against the background of a Soviet society and economy, enfeebled by decades of centralized planning and consumer deprivation, which were unable to absorb the shock of Gorbachev's perestroika and vision of a revitalized socialism. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER includes 18 pages of Notes, and a 5-page Bibliography; Dobbs did his homework. This most excellent work is likely to be most appreciated by those post-WWII Baby Boomer's like myself, who grew up under the threat of a Soviet missile strike. (Those under 20 will probably yawn.) We remember the duck-and-cover drills in elementary school, the periodic tests of the town air raid siren, Khrushchev's shoe at the U.N., the Cuban Missile Crisis, bomb shelters, "better dead than red", the Domino Theory, "we will bury you", the Red Menace, the Evil Empire, the hammer and sickle on a blood red flag. Watching on TV the collapse of the Berlin Wall was, for me, the end of an era and a catharsis. My God, we'd "won". Nowadays, those that would destroy skyscrapers, embassies, troop convoys, bus stops, and underground trains are anonymous and stateless. Peculiarly, I miss

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!!

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.

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

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.