Sir Rodrik Braithwaite (1932) headed the British diplomatic mission in Moscow from 1988 to 1992, and witnessed and sometimes participated in key events in the country just before, during and after what he called the second revolution in its history.
What are the reasons for the downfall of the ‘Soviet empire’ and the collapse of communist illusions? Who are they, the protagonists of this historical drama, what are the motives for their actions or inactions, personal characteristics, ambitions and interests? What, in fact, is the ‘mystery of the Russian soul’, and does Russia have a special mission in history, or is it doomed to submit to the imperatives of globalisation? Are Russians capable of building a civil society, and do they need one?
Answering these and other questions in his book, the author comes to a fundamentally important conclusion: ‘Russia can hope to create a viable political and economic system. It will be a Russian model of democracy, significantly different from the American or even the European model’.