Published originally as The Soviet System in Crisis - a Reader of Western and Soviet Views, this revised edition offers a discussion of the transformation of communism under Gorbachev and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. A wide variety of views is represented - sceptical and enthusiastic, ideological and pragmatic - and they are placed in context by the introductory and concluding chapters. The editors have brought together Soviet documents and commentary (including contributions from Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Shevardnadze), as well as Western analyses, dealing with developments in Soviet politics, economy, society, culture and foreign policy from 1985 to 1991. By including opinion both from inside the former USSR and from the West, the book presents the full spectrum of the debate on the rapid decline and collapse of this once powerful union.