"In There Is No Freedom Without Bread!, the Russian-born historian Constantine Pleshakov proposes a daring revisionist account of 1989 and the revolutions that took place during that momentous year." "The conventional story of the end of the cold war focuses on the geopolitical power struggle between the United States and the USSR: Ronald Reagan waged an aggressive campaign against communism, outspent the USSR, and forced Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Wall. But in fact, Pleshakov reveals, the uprising was more complex than the archetypal image of the "good" masses overthrowing the "bad" puppet regimes of the Soviet empire. Politicking, severe tensions between Moscow and local Communist governments, compromise between the revolutionary leaders and the Communist old-timers, the quagmire of the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan, and the will and anger of the people - all had a profound influence in shaping the revolutions as multifaceted movements that brought about one of the greatest transformations in history." "In a dramatic narrative culminating in a close examination of the whirlwind year, Pleshakov challenges the received wisdom and argues that 1989 was as much about national civil wars and internal struggles for power as it was about Eastern Europeans throwing off the yoke of Moscow."--Jacket.

pt. 1. 1942-1979 --War brings license : 1942-48 -- Communism rises : 1949-77 -- The pope arms 150 divisions : 1978-79 -- pt. 2. 1980-1988 -- The working class strikes : 1980-81 -- The revolution winters : 1982-88 -- pt. 3. 1989 -- The "Polish disease" spreads : June-September -- The wall opens up, the magic theater raises curtain : October-November -- Gorbachev stumbles, Ceauşescu falls : December -- Epilogue.