{"product_id":"9781529065787","title":"The August Coup : The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor:  Service, Robert \u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eFormer Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 11 June 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHardback | 432 pages\u003cbr\u003e249 x 166 | 688g\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Lively and insightful' – The Times‘A must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR and the emergence of a new Russia’ – Mark Galeotti, author of Forged in War'Immensely well-researched and compellingly written . . . grips the reader from page one' – Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with DestinyFrom the acclaimed author of Kremlin Winter and Blood on the Snow, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia’s recent history: the August Coup.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv’s capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv’s well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union – business fraud, government corruption, organized crime and interethnic conflict – increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLinking the years from the coup itself to today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin, The August Coup is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HUNTS BOOKSHOP LTD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58256362602877,"sku":"9781529065787","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0514\/8635\/9739\/files\/9781529065787.jpg?v=1780762529","url":"https:\/\/huntsbookshop.com\/products\/9781529065787","provider":"Hunt's Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}