Steeltown, USSR: Soviet Society in the Gorbachev Era

Quite excellent view of the late-Soviet reality through the eyes of one Russian industrial town. Very engaging narrative. Highly recommended, along with the venerable classic THE RUSSIANS by Hedrick Smith. In fact I would recommend this book before I would recommend's Hedrick Smith's follow up book THE NEW RUSSIANS, in all honesty. STEELTOWN, USSR is truer in spirit and kinship to the earlier Smith book...THE NEW RUSSIANS focuses a little too much on Gorbachev to the exclusion of the wider picture. This book gives an effective glimpse of that wider picture thru an effective microcosm...a must read for any student of Russian history.