Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union

by Scott Shane

Book Overview

A brilliant and original account of how Gorbachev's easing of information controls destroyed the illusions of communism and drove the Soviet system to ruin. "Shane writes with such bracing authority, such startling insight, that Dismantling Utopia must be regarded as one of the essential works on the fall of the Soviet Union." -Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566630991
• ISBN13: 9781566630993
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A story that should be more widely told and understood

Wow. What an interesting book. Scott Shane was in the right spot and had the right skills to interpret the demise of a great empire, the Soviet Union. We don't have the luxury to run controlled trials in society, but sometimes they happen for us. The Soviet Union was one of history's biggest experiments. As we now know, it failed miserably. If we can't learn lessons from such a colossal failure, we aren't very good students of history and human behavior. The lesson from Scott Shane, that gives the book its subtitle, is that information can set us free. The lesson I draw is that governments should serve the people, not visa versa. Charles L. Hooper, coauthor Making Great Decisions in Business and Life

A denoument in the 3rd act

DISMANTLING UTOPIA Scott Shane, an American educated journalist who also studied at Leningrad State University, was the Baltimore Sun's Russian speaking Moscow correspondent from 1988-1991. His book is the story of the Communist rulers of the USSR and their failure to comprehend the implications of the global telecommunications revolution. In trying to match the USA in military might, a feat presumed by many to be a foregone conclusion in 1980, the inhabitants of the politburo instead locked their country out of the global telecom revolution hastening the implosion of their already rotten and inefficient communist system. Shane weaves a fascinating tale of this unexpected transition, an event from which Hard Leftists of the world have yet to recover. At the outset Shane tells of the banning of books, of the speech codes and of the virtual thought control so pervasive in the communist system. One can't help but compare it to the speech codes so popular today with the tenured radicals who run American universities. Moving right along Shane morphs into the early 80's when Gorbachev asked Andropov how much the USSR spent on defense? Andropov brushed him off. It was then that Gorbachev realized that nobody knew! This was a time when personal computers were 8 bit with 64K of RAM. Contrast this with the >10 gig PC hard drives of today, selling at a fraction of the cost of the 1980 PC. Contrast the decline of the Soviet economy with the rise of Americas' and you have the essence of this book. <p>As the Communist leviathan unraveled its shortage of hard currency became an untenable burden. They made more of everything than anyone else, but nobody wanted any of it. They couldn't feed their people and compete with American military might. Russia's decline can be paralleled with the fall in labor union membership in America where the only ascendant unions today are made up of government employees (hardly the laborers Marx had in mind when he encouraged workers to throw off their chains). The reason is that the global economy is moving away from industries that make things and move things and toward the development of intellectual capital and software. <p>As the plummeting of the Communist economy accelerated the phrase "Kogda ty znal - when did you know?" became a common one. "When did you know the accomplishments of the communist party were based on lies?" Information from smaller and smaller electronic units proved impossible for the Reds to block. The corrupt communist elite was on the ropes. Scott Shane describes this building pressure in Soviet society. Just as water pressure builds behind a dam after 40 days and 40 nights of rain, pressure built in Soviet society and when the dam finally broke, the apparatchiks were swept away and the party unity and organization did a face plant into the sidewalk of history. <p>An interesting vignette in the book occurs when the main apartment unit, in one of those dreary grey Soviet housing projects, plays a tape

Honest, compelling account , of the power of words.

I have lived in Russia for the past three years and am a personal friend of Andre Mironoff. I have taught Human Rights in Russian Universities, and have had Andre as a guest lecturer in my classe.I recommend with out reservation reading this book to have a better understanding of life that still exists in modern Russia. There are more paradoxes than solutions to the complexities existing in Russia's difficult transition. I found Scott Shane's book to give a better understanding to the paradoxes existing today than did David Remnicks "Lenin's Toumb". Shane skillfully and accurately identified the power of informtion in the Soviet Union's collapse, the paradox being, the lack of coodinated information desemination in Russia today being a major barrier to reform. Andrei is still pursuing Human Rights in Russia, and many others like him are vital to keeping the foundation of reform alive----that is a civil society with an appreciation of the importance of recognizing Human Rights of its citizens.This book also has a great potential not in classes relating to Russia's current transition, but to Human Rights classe in general...The theoretical aspects are grounded into a practical reality for a reader of Shane's book. To any reader,,,the importance of media in our modern society is underscored by this account. This book is an excellent gift to share with friends, It also allows readers to understand the importance of supporting reform in Russia

A compelling read, beautifully written

Scott Shane's "Dismantling Utopia" is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Russia. David Remnick (Lenin's Tomb) called it "A critical book [written] with grace, sympathy and intelligence." I can't improve upon that assessment. I do think Shane is one of the United States' best journalists, and could make any subject interesting reading.