Hi, Just finished 'The Third Reich' Trilogy by Richard J Evans and found it really informative and easy to understand. Listening to some of Evans brief contextual commentary on the USSR made me hope there is a similar style of book for the USSR out there. The coming of, in power, at war, cold war, collapse of Any help would be great!
Ronald Grigor Suny's The Soviet Experiment is one of the standard texts for a survey in Soviet History and one that I would recommend if you are interested in a broad overview of the entirety of the Soviet Union.
Haven't read Evans, but if you want a very readable and interesting work comparing the Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, "The Dictators" by Overy does a good job. It is more about the systems than leaders themselves.
For Soviet Union, especially early decades, works by Shiela Fitzpatrick can be highly recommended.
"A Failed Empire" by Vladislav Zubok is a very detailed and insightful book on the USSR from 1945 till 1991.
Are you looking for books that cover the 'rise and fall' or was their an aspect/style of Evans' text that interested you?
"A People's Tragedy" by Orlando Figes is a fascinating tome about the revolution, the lead up to it and up to Lenin's death. It's a great place to start.