Ussr: The Corrupt Society: The Secret World Of Soviet Capitalism
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Remainder mark
Beneath the iron façade of Soviet ideological purity lay a sprawling underground economy of bribery, corruption, and shadow capitalism — and Konstantin M. Simis was one of the few insiders who dared to document it. USSR: The Corrupt Society presents a damning exposé of the endemic graft that permeated every level of Soviet life, from local party officials demanding kickbacks to high-ranking apparatchiks living in secret luxury, all while the state proclaimed the triumph of socialist equality. Drawing on his years as a defence lawyer in the Soviet legal system, Simis chronicles the systemic rot with the precision of an eyewitness and the authority of a legal expert, detailing how corruption was not an aberration within the USSR but its very operating principle. Translated into English and published for a Western audience hungry to understand the true mechanics of Cold War-era Soviet power, this work stands as a landmark piece of political non-fiction. Simis writes with restrained but devastating clarity, stripping away the propaganda to reveal a state whose black markets, patronage networks, and institutionalised theft rendered its Marxist-Leninist rhetoric entirely hollow. For anyone seeking to understand how the Soviet Union truly functioned — and perhaps why it ultimately could not endure — this unflinching account raises questions about power and corruption that remain urgently relevant today.
Author: Konstantin M. Simis
Format: Hardback
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Remainder mark
Beneath the iron façade of Soviet ideological purity lay a sprawling underground economy of bribery, corruption, and shadow capitalism — and Konstantin M. Simis was one of the few insiders who dared to document it. USSR: The Corrupt Society presents a damning exposé of the endemic graft that permeated every level of Soviet life, from local party officials demanding kickbacks to high-ranking apparatchiks living in secret luxury, all while the state proclaimed the triumph of socialist equality. Drawing on his years as a defence lawyer in the Soviet legal system, Simis chronicles the systemic rot with the precision of an eyewitness and the authority of a legal expert, detailing how corruption was not an aberration within the USSR but its very operating principle. Translated into English and published for a Western audience hungry to understand the true mechanics of Cold War-era Soviet power, this work stands as a landmark piece of political non-fiction. Simis writes with restrained but devastating clarity, stripping away the propaganda to reveal a state whose black markets, patronage networks, and institutionalised theft rendered its Marxist-Leninist rhetoric entirely hollow. For anyone seeking to understand how the Soviet Union truly functioned — and perhaps why it ultimately could not endure — this unflinching account raises questions about power and corruption that remain urgently relevant today.