Who Lost Russia?
by Peter Conradi, Oneworld, £18.99
Peter Conradi, Reuters correspondent in Moscow between 1988 and 1995 and now foreign editor of the Sunday Times, has written a balanced and informative account of what happened to Russia after the collapse of communism. I recommend it to all seeking a clear overview of recent history.
Returning to Moscow in 2016, Conradi describes his book as “a story of high hopes and goodwill but also of misunderstanding and missed opportunities”. He quotes former President Nixon who, in 1992, aged 79, said in a memorandum that Russia needed much more economic help than the US was prepared to give, stating: “The hot-button issue in the 1950s was ‘Who lost China?’ If Yeltsin goes down, the question ‘Who lost Russia?’ will be an infinitely more devastating issue in the 1990s.”
