Moscow, December 25, 1991

Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. Vladimir Putin History always comes down to the details. And when it comes to the fall of the Soviet Union, the details are crucial, especially when such an era-defining event hinged on the bitter personal relationship between two powerful men, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. On the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Cold War, Conor O Clery has built his compelling and brilliantly reconstructed narrative of the last days of the Soviet Union around one day, the 25th of December 1991, the day Gorbachev resigned and the USSR was effectively dissolved. From there, O Clery looks back over the events of the previous six years that culminated in that remarkable day- Gorbachev s policies of glasnost and perestroika; Yeltsin s rise to the top; the declarations of sovereignty by most of the Soviet republics; the failed August coup by the hardliners; and the events that swiftly followed. The result is an intricately detailed, thoroughly researched book, based on interviews with many of the key figures in the Shakespearean-style drama, contemporary reportag