Featuring extensive revisions to  the text as well as a new introduction and epilogue - bringing the book  completely up to date on the tumultuous politics of the previous decade  and the long-term implications of the Soviet collapse - this compact,  original, and engaging book offers the definitive account of one of the  great historical events of the last 50 years.

Combining  historical and geopolitical analysis with an absorbing narrative, Kotkin  draws upon extensive research, including memoirs by dozens of insiders  and senior figures, to illuminate the factors that led to the demise of  Communism and the USSR. The new edition puts the collapse in the context  of the global economic and political changes from the 1970s to the  present day. Kotkin creates a compelling profile of post-Soviet Russia,  and he reminds us, with chilling immediacy, of what could not have been  predicted - that the world's largest police state, with several million  troops, a doomsday arsenal, and an appalling record of violence, would  liquidate itself with barely a whimper.

Throughout the book,  Kotkin also paints vivid portraits of key personalities. Using recently  released archive materials, for example, he offers a fascinating picture  of Gorbachev, describing this virtuoso tactician and resolutely  committed reformer as "flabbergasted by the fact that his socialist  renewal was leading to the system's liquidation" - and more or less  going along with it.

At once authoritative and provocative, Armageddon Averted illuminates the collapse of the Soviet Union, revealing how "principled  restraint and scheming self-interest brought a deadly system to meek  dissolution".