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As Press Secretary to Mikhail Gorbachev, Andrei Grachev witnessed and recorded many events unobserved by the general public. In this book he recounts some of these episodes in detail, interpreting them in the context of the time.

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• Foreword: Archie Brown(p. ix)
• Preface(p. xv)
• Mending the Breach(p. 1)
• Reinforcements From The Second Front(p. 13)
• On a Crumbling Verge(p. 33)
• A President Without a Country(p. 47)
• One Last Mission For the Union(p. 59)
• On the Eve Of the Seventy-Fourth Anniversary Of the October Revolution(p. 85)
• The Mirage Of a Confederal State(p. 97)
• A Free Man With Nothing to Fear(p. 113)
• A Cloud in Trousers(p. 119)
• Fight to the Finish(p. 127)
• Final Hours(p. 145)
• Checking the Pulse(p. 153)
• Last Rites(p. 159)
• Burying a Time Capsule(p. 169)
• Departure(p. 175)
• Afterword: A Mythical Kingdom Vanishes--Again(p. 195)
• Appendix: Resignation Speech of Mikhail Gorbachev: Delivered at 7:00 P.M. on December 25, 1991(p. 203)
• Notes(p. 207)
• About the Book and Author(p. 214)
• Index(p. 215)

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CHOICE Review

Final Days is one of a number of accounts of the collapse of the Soviet Union written by participants, insiders, or close observers. Grachev's distinct perspective comes from his position as former President Mikhail Gorbachev's press secretary, which gave him direct access to the President. The account covers the fateful days from the August coup to the president's resignation on December 25, 1991. It focuses on Gorbachev's unsuccessful pursuit of a two-track strategy to keep the Soviet Union as a common economic space and hold the country together as a unified political entity. Clearly, the villain in the piece is Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who outmaneuvered Gorbachev and put in place his agenda of Russian economic reform and independence. Gorbachev is depicted as an unselfish leader who overrode personal ambition to accept ultimately the role that would ensure the transition with minimal disruption. Clearly Grachev's account is based on his loyalty to Gorbachev. Nevertheless, it is useful and insightful in providing Westerners with a sense of the personal tensions that served as a backdrop to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The account is well written and translated into very readable English. All levels. D. V. Schwartz University of Toronto