The End of the Cold War

The first comprehensive account to reveal exactly how the Cold War - and the Soviet Union - came to an end, a process which transformed the world in the late 20th century."Our leading historian of the Soviet Union ... magisterial" ObserverThe dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the spread of Perestroika throughout the former Soviet bloc was a sea change in world history and two years later resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.In The End of the Cold War, acclaimed Russian historian Robert Service examines precisely how that change came about. Drawing on a vast and largely untapped range of sources, he builds a picture of the two men who spearheaded the breakthrough: Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, and Mikhail Gorbachev, last General Secretary of the Soviet Union and first and last President of the USSR. He also analyses the role of influential players not only in America and the USSR, but throughout Eastern and Western Europe, and focuses especially on Pope John Paul II, Lech Watesa and Vaclav Havel.Authoritative, compelling and meticulously researched, this is political history at its best.PRAISE FOR ROBERT SERVICE"An abundance of superbly organized material" Independent"Detailed and clear ... his main strength is his forensic challenge to the clichés and myths on which western triumphalism about the Cold War is based ... Service is an authoritative voice offering a more nuanced view." Sunday Times"Well-written and thought-provoking" Literary Review"Masterful chronicle about personalities and ideas ..." Times Higher Education Supplement"A magisterial account of a turning point in modern history, whose intellectual rigour and robustness make it unlikely to be bettered" Spectator

Short-listed for Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2016 (UK)

“Detailed and clear ... his main strength is his forensic challenge to the clich”

What makes Service's book special is its scholarship. His terrier-like persistence in digging into previously unexcavated archives in Russia, across America and around the internet gives his view of this slice of our recent past a firm documentary foundation ... A magisterial account of a turning point in modern history, whose intellectual rigour and robustness make it unlikely to be bettered. -- Sherard Cowper-Coles Spectator
Our leading historian of the Soviet Union ... magisterial. Observer
és and myths on which western triumphalism about the Cold War is based ... Service is an authoritative voice offering a more nuanced view. -- Victor Sebestyen Sunday Times
A masterful chronicle about personalities and ideas ... The Cold War ended with the demise of the USSR in December 1991. The great biographer of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky here offers a superb account of how and why this unexpected denouement came about. -- Vladimir Tismaneanu Times Higher Education Supplement
Well-written and thought-provoking. -- Christopher Andrew Literary Review
An abundance of superbly organized material. -- Mary Dejevsky Independent
Absorbingly written, displaying an admirable command of the sources, this book is destined to become a classic of Cold War historical literature. International Affairs
This volume is both important and fascinatingly readable. It is a big book but not an exhausting one, a good read with no wasted space. BBC History Magazine
Service is known for his meaty biographies of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, so it is unsurprising that in this intricate history he brings magnificently to life the "big four" who did most to end the Cold War. Sunday Telegraph

Robert Service is a fellow of the British Academy and of St Antony's College, Oxford, where he is Professor of Russian History; he is also a visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography, Comrades: A History of World Communism, Trotsky: A Biography, which won the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize, and, most recently, Spies and Commissars. He lives in London.

For decades, the Cold War seemed to be completely entrenched and no Western or Soviet politician could have foreseen that the stand-off between the two superpowers - after years of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics and ideas - would end in their lifetime. Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints how the astonishing relationships between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbach

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