Russia's Revolution from Above, 1985-2000

In Russia's Revolution from Above, 1985-2000, Gordon Hahn argues that the Russian transition from state socialism to democracy was a bureaucrat-led, state-based revolution managed by a group of Communist Party functionaries who won control over the Russian Republic (RSFSR) in the mid-1990s. The result is a weak society unable to nudge the state to concentrate on institutional reforms society needs for the development of a free polity and economy. Russia's Revolution from Above goes far in correcting the historical record and reconceptualizing the Soviet transformation.