Reexamining the Soviet Experience contains 11 essays addressing historiographical and political theory and practice in view of the USSR's demise. Contributors address such matters as the psychological dimensions of the U.S.-Soviet conflict; E. H. Carr and the politics of Soviet Studies in Britain; revision and retreat in the historiography of 1917; and how Mikail Gorbachev sold his concessionary foreign policy. One chapter, titled "Bohr, Beria and the Question of Atomic Intelligence," is authored by David Holloway.

Based on interviews with participants and research in newly opened archives, the book reveals how the American atomic monopoly affected Stalin's foreign policy, the role of espionage in the evolution of the Soviet bomb, and the relationship between Soviet nuclear scientists and the country's political leaders.

Hostage to Revolution makes an important contribution to the understanding of a timely and significant subject. It deals with the aspect of the final years of Soviet policy most directly relevant to American security, and relevant today as the foundation on which present and future Russian policy is being built.

Blacker shows the integral nature of Soviet internal and external policy, and of Gorbachev's new thinking on security and attempt to reform the economy and transform the society. Remarkably successful in bringing the Cold War to an end, Gorbachev's security policies - and Gorbachev, and even the Soviet Union - ultimately fell victim to the failure of perestroika to bring about the reformation of the Soviet system. It is a fascinating story, told with clear analysis and in a clear language. (Raymond Garthoff, The Brookings Institution)

also in Franklin A. Long, Donald Haffner, and Jeffrey Boutwell (eds.), Weapons in Space, W.W. Norton & Co., 1986, pp. 257-278; exerpted in P. Edward Haley and Jack Merritt (eds.) Strategic Defense Initiative: Folly or Future?, Westview Press, 1986, pp. 139-150

A paperback edition with a new introduction was published in 1984.