{"product_id":"9781529065787","title":"The August Coup","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Lively and insightful' - \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR and the emergence of a new Russia' - Mark Galeotti, author of \u003ci\u003eForged in War\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Immensely well-researched and compellingly written . . . grips the reader from page one' - Andrew Roberts, author of \u003ci\u003eChurchill: Walking with Destiny\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eKremlin Winter \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBlood on the Snow\u003c\/i\u003e, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia's recent history: the August Coup.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv's capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv's well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union - business fraud, government corruption, organized crime and interethnic conflict - increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLinking the years from the coup itself to today's Russia under Vladimir Putin, \u003ci\u003eThe August Coup\u003c\/i\u003e is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57250140586357,"sku":"9781529065787","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0289\/5334\/6096\/files\/9781529065787.jpg?v=1780581274","url":"https:\/\/goldenharebooks.com\/products\/9781529065787","provider":"Golden Hare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}