In this book, John Keep gives a narrative history of the USSR from the last years of Stalin's despotic rule to the eventual collapse of the empire in 1991. During these years living standards slowly improved as various attempts were made to reform Communist rule. Although material prosperity rose under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, however, the Communist system itself began to erode. The official ideology grew less and less relevant to people's everyday concerns; the Party lost its moral authority.

The early 1980s saw a growing black market economy, incompetent management, and agricultural waste. When control passed to pragmatic, younger leaders like Gorbachev, their attempts to reinvigorate the economy by appealing to the intelligentsia opened a Pandora's box of conflicting opinions. The Party surrendered its monopoly of power, central institutions crumbled, and the centrifugal forces emanating from national minorities culminated in the empire's downfall.

1. Since 1988 the mantle of Soviet secrecy has slowly been lifted, allowing historians access to some of the country's vast archival resources. Last of the Empires explores the central currents of political, cultural, social, and economic development running through forty-six crucial years of Soviet rule, and enables us to gain a greater understanding of one of the most tragic experiences in human history.