What are the best books on the Soviet collapse?

by Paulonium1

I mean late-era USSR, 1989-1991 inclusive. Besides Plokhii (2014) and Remnick (1993). Already looked through the rec. modern Soviet history list.

affirming_flame

Stephen Kotkin has a couple of good books, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 and Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment.

You might like Alexei Yurchak's Everything was Forever Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation

If you're interested in the diplomacy that led to the generally peaceful conclusion of the Cold War, check out Mary Sarotte's book, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe.

There are also numerous histories of the entire Cold War that discuss the Soviet collapse in-depth, of which two of the best are: Melvyn Leffler's For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War and Odd Arne Westad's The Cold War: A Global History.

Vladislav Zubok has written a general history of Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, titled A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. Zubok's book is probably still the best synthesis of Soviet Cold War policy.

Chris Miller has recently written an excellent book on Gorbachev's economic policy: The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR.

If you think you might want to read about the topic through a biography, William Taubman's new book on Gorbachev is also very good.

Hope this helps!