The "Gorbachev phenomenon" is seen as the product of complex developments during the last seventy years—developments that changed the Soviet Union from a primarily agrarian society into an urban, industrial one. Here, for the first time, a noted authority on Soviet society identifies the crucial historical events and social forces that explain Glasnost and political and economic life in the Soviet Union today.

Moshe Lewin is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books on Soviet history.

"Mr. Lewin's book is a grand essay of wide historical and sociological sweep. . . . Perhaps the study's most valuable contribution is the emphasis on the social changes Russia has undergone since 1917, symbolized by the shift of population from village to city and all the characteristic byproducts of urbanization, including the rise of the educated professionals with middle-class values and attitudes."—Alexander Dallin, New York Times Book Review

"A broad historical analysis of Lewin's kind makes the Gorbachev phenomenon far less an extraordinary event, by replacing it within the continuum of historical trends of which he is the expression and which are being achieved through him."—Pierre Bourdieu, Times Literary Supplement

"This slim volume, based on a lifetime's scholarly research into social change since the revolution, is compulsory . . . reading for anyone who would or should understand the Gorbachev phenomenon."—Edward Acton, London Observer

"Concise, illuminating commentary on the state of the Soviet Union. . . . Lewin's study is sharply focused, [and] offers intriguing perspectives on an imperfectly understood regime that may be only a few steps ahead of the polyglot population it is assumed to lead and rule."—Kirkus Reviews

"In an instructive and highly readable analysis, Lewin pinpoints Gorbachev's main strength as his awareness that all parts of the system--society, party, state, economy—must be reformed simultaneously."—Publishers Weekly