Autopsy For An Empire: The Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime

by Dmitri Volkogonov

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Genres: History, Russia, Biography, Nonfiction, Russian History, Politics, Soviet Union

854 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 8, 1998

About the author

See also: Дмитрий Волкогонов

Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov (Russian: Дми́трий Анто́нович Волкого́нов) (22 March 1928 – 6 December 1995) was a Russian historian and colonel-general who was head of the Soviet military's psychological warfare department. After researching the secret Soviet archives, he published biographies of Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, among others. Despite being a committed Stalinist and Marxist-Leninist ideologue for most of his career, Volkogonov came to repudiate communism and the Soviet system within the last decade of his life before his death from cancer in 1995.
Through his research in the restricted archives of the Soviet Central Committee, Volkogonov discovered facts that contradicted the official Soviet version of events, and the cult of personality that had been built up around Lenin and Stalin. Volkogonov published books that contributed to the strain of liberal Russian thought that emerged during Glasnost in the late 1980s and the post-Soviet era of the early 1990s.

Reviews

[Justin Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it seemed inconceivable. That a global power that dominated the 20th century would dissolve and usher in a new era of political alignment did not appear on many people’s proverbial bingo cards. And yet it did, largely as a result of its own internal contradictions and structural failures. How did the Soviet Union fall apart and what does it mean for the world at large?

For Dmitri Volkogonov, a Russian military historian who saw first hand the inner workings of the Soviet system, the answer to that critical question is found in the seven leaders who ruled that system. In Autopsy For An Empire (1998), he peels back the myths and propaganda to get to the real reasons for the triumphs, and tragedies, of the Soviet Union. Only seven men ruled over the country in its 70-plus years (Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev), and it was their commitment to a statist socialism, divorced from democracy or public accountability, that undid the Soviet project.

Volkogonov challenges a common assumption that the system developed under Stalin, with the show trials, assassinations, and purges, was a deviation from Lenin’s conception of the Soviet state. In his view, Lenin’s shuttering of the constituent assembly, establishment of the Cheka (secret police), and the clampdown on the Kronstadt rebellion, to name a few, gave ammunition to Stalin and his successors.

While there was a slight “thaw” under Krushchev, the conservative turn under Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko, who all died within a two-year span, represented the deep rot that had set into the system. By Gorbachev’s rise to power, the pioneering reforms he implemented couldn’t be squared with the requirements of the Leninist system— centralization, compartmentalization, and secrecy. The crises of economic stagnation, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, and the fall of the Berlin wall further drove the Soviet Union towards collapse.

Part history, part confession, Autopsy For An Empire is Volkogonov’s masterwork on the flaws within “really existing socialism,” its destruction due to those flaws, and the implications for us all today.

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a devastating portrait of Soviet leadership from Lenin to Gorbachev. It offers the only biographies I've found in English of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, the decrepit fifth and sixth leaders of the USSR. Author Dmitri Volkogonov was a Soviet colonel-general and it is interesting to read his personal insights, usually cutting indeed, on the stagnation and collapse of the Communist experiment.

Here's his basic conclusion, with reference to Khrushchev secret speech in 1956 condemning Stalin:

"Following the Twentieth Congress new touches appeared in the Bolshevik outlook. Against a background of the 'unexpectedly' exposed evil-doings of Stalin, the 'good' Lenin appeared even more of a genius, an absolutely infallible prophet. Naturally, it was stressed that Stalin's villainy was completely unconnected with the system or with Leninist ideology. Nor did the revealed anomalies have any bearing on the goal.

"The time came, however, when more and more people began to see that the Bolshevik 'truths' were in fact expressions of a big lie within a whole system of lies. It was on this basis that within the barbed-wired system created by the first two leaders, the crisis deepened and the cracks in the monolith widened."

[Ante Pelivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The decline and fall of the Soviet empire

In his book Autopsy for an Empire, Dmitri Vologonov writes... After hearing this line too many times in podcasts, I decided to give it a go. A book by an ex-Communist, ex-general, and ex-Yeltsin adviser can't be anything other than a page-turner, right? Well, right!

I enjoyed it immensely. It hits the right spot between a history textbook and a YT video.

Volkogonov writes with a zeal of a newly-forged democrat, disillusioned by Leninist myths and sorry for the damage done by the system he was a part of for most of his adult life. You can almost touch the cognitive dissonance he's trying to resolve by writing this book.

He's unapologetic about the Soviet regime from the get-go. With the benefit of hindsight, he dooms the communist system to failure even before Lenin came to power. From page 1, the dissolution of the Union is foreshadowed constantly.

One leader, one chapter. Seven chapters overall.

The story starts with Lenin and follows the rest of the leaders of the Communist party all the way to Gorbachev. Volkogonov had access to state archives which allows him to paint a very detailed picture of each leader. Think: Mike Duncan's level of background stories on each of the seven leaders.

As the book progresses, you slowly get into a stagnant and rotten state of mind. The queues for food, dissidents exiled because of soft criticism, leaders comically burdened with dozens of medals... For someone who hasn't witnessed these times, I could still envision how grey and stale it must have felt living in the 70s and 80s USSR.

It's a loooong book. It took me several months of on-off reading to finish it. But once you get into the reading mode, it's easy to follow the book and you can enjoy it to the fullest.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in history and Cold War.

[Mickey Mantle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A regime destined for the dustbin of history since its inception. Very insightful. Another "Come to Jesus" writing style by an author who realizes the ludicrousness and lies of a governmental system he spent his career serving.
Of all the Soviet leaders, Gorbachev was between the rock and the hard place as the house of cards was tumbling down.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful review of the Soviet leaders.

[Mitchell R Foxworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly detailed coverage of all 7 Soviet leaders and the political contexts in which they operated. The book is based on archival data which became available to the author in the brief period of late Glasnost when the doors were completely open, during which some of this data was not available to Western scholars, so he is able to offer many unique insights. A reader should be aware that the book was written for Soviet audiences, so Volkogonov assumes some background knowledge that Western audiences might not have (for example, that Lenin's health decline began when he was shot by an attempted assassin in 1918). Volkogonov also frequently indulges in Marxist/Leninist-style declarations of contempt for certain subjects; Western readers may find this off-putting. Overall though, he makes an extremely strong case for his main theme, which is that Stalin and the other successors of Lenin were largely consistent with Lenin's methods of governance, and that reformers like Khruschev and Gorbachev made a false distinction between "pure" Leninism and the state structures which were later created. He shows that the flaws in the Soviet state were largely due to the precedents set at its founding, and that these flaws would have led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet experiment regardless of the actions of Gorbachev and similar reformist politicians.

[Philip Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title tells it all. It's a short biography on each leader of the USSR, not a conventional history.

Volkogonov dispels the notion, throughout the book, that a return to "Leninist" principles could have saved the state from collapse. He never wavers from his thesis that the state Lenin founded was utterly without redeeming value and should not be saved.

His biography of VI Lenin is not really a biography, it's an indictment.

His chapter on Brezhnev was good. I didn't know he was such an empty suit, a tool of the vast totalitarian state that pushed him up to power. And he was extremely vain, the author points out.

Volkogonov's portrait of Gorbachev is excellent and should be read. His idea of the "paradox of Gorbachev" is something that I had always thought about myself.

Recommended reading for history of the Soviet Union buffs.

Philip J Kuhn

[Catherine Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful history of what makes Putin want to return Russia to the USSR. Starting with Lenin and ending with Gorbachev, the brutal stamp of making Communism work by whatever means necessary, including killing whoever stood in their way. Not the easiest read and too long, but helpful to understand the methods used by Russia in Ukraine.

[Karl Hafer, Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am impressed at the relative neutrality the author had when writing this book, given his political and military career.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and pretty savage in its critique

[Mingyin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book, with a lot of details. The death of Stalin, the death of of Beria and the humiliation of Nikita during the Cuban Missle crisis is vividly presently. Since the author was part of the high level bureaucracy of USSR, the stories are somewhat more crebible than other authors.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

In words of author himself, "Autopsy for an Empire" is in reality a collection of seven 'short' books, each presenting biography of a leader of Soviet Union from its creation to its downfall. If I understand it correctly, author's premise is that those seven men and their personas were absolutely crucial for how the social experiment called Soviet Union developed through out its history.

Concept of this book is very fascinating, the big question is how well author managed to achieve his goal and indeed if that goal was achievable to begin with. Personally, I have to say that "Autopsy for an Empire" as a whole is a bit of a mixed bag. First two "books", dealing with Lenin and Stalin, show clearly the decisive role of these two men in creation of Soviet Union as a social and political system. They fail however, at least to some degree, to explain the men themselves. This failure cannot really be blamed on the author, both Lenin and Stalin are simply too complex (in my opinion) to be depicted in detail in alloted space. Thus, while the author clearly establishes the importance of the permanent shadow those two men cast on Sovjet Union, the answer to the question why why the fruit of their efforts turned out to be fundamentally flawed is going only 'skin deep', relying to a large degree on simplistic 'they were evil' argument.

Leaders of the post-war era were in author's opinion either unwilling or unable to change the course of the Soviet Union set by Lenin and fortified by Stalin. They are depicted in this book as mere custodians of the rotten system heading toward disaster. Some of them, like Krustjev and Gorbatjev, tried their best to change the direction in which the system was heading and failed due to its inherent inertia. Other, perhaps first and foremost Brezjnev, are depicted by the author as unimaginative care-takers of existing status quo, acting more as observers rather than active leaders. Is the author correct in his assessment of these men? Every individual reader must judge for himself; personally I am of opinion that author's analysis of later history of Sovjet empire is a bit too simplistic and relies too much on putting the blame on Lenin's and Stalin's 'original sins'.

As it is perhaps apparent, I am not overwhelmed by the depth of analysis provided in this book. I am however of opinion that 'Autopsy for an Empire' is a great read regardless of its shortcomings. There are three reasons for my endorsement. First and foremost, the author had unprecedented access to Sovjet archives and he uses them prolifically. This fact alone raises contents of this book to unique level. Second, the author was himself crucial player in the system he's analyzing and his personal recollections and insights are of outmost value for anyone interested in this topic. Finally... from literary point of view, this is a good, well-written and engaging book.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in topic of Soviet Union and its political system. Just don't pick it up as your introductory primer, you'll get much more out of it if you have basic grasp of the subject matter beforehand.

[Mary Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this, 12 years later. But that should not reflect badly on the book. I did actually like this. Especially as it's interesting to read Russians' perspectives on the Soviet period, not just American or British writers'. And Volkogonov is particularly interesting because he was a Colonel-General in the Soviet army's propaganda department in the 70s, which could do a lot of things to a person's mind, so for him to decide to start questioning things when he did is pretty amazing. How the regime decided to put him as the director of the Institute of Military History after he had already revealed his "unacceptable" thinking is a mystery to me, but they did and this allowed him access to a gold mine of information.

The actual writing style of this book is rather boring - a little dry, but it is more the content and amount of inside information he had. I also like that his assessments are pretty balanced over all; no one comes out in black or white. Lenin and Stalin definitely come out the worst, but it is interesting to see the reasons why in detail, rather than an oversimplified general impression of them. And even though he describes Gorbachev as the best leader of the Soviet Union, he also analyzes some of Gorbachev's darkest moments, which I think is better not forgotten. Anyway, I'm glad I've read this book but don't know if I would recommend it to anyone other than Soviet history fanatics.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now know more about the Soviet leaders than I ever wanted to know. Awesome book though, very informative.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read if you want to know what happened in the USSR. Good riddance.

[Dariusz Płochocki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Najgenialniejsze studium psychologiczno historyczne przywódców ZSRR.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent summary, from a Russian perspective, of what the seven Soviet-era leaders did to/for the Russian people.

[Andrew Sebastian]

File Under: A biography of tyrants, incompetence, old men, and reformers.

[Brent L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of all the leaders of the Soviet Union from when the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.