One of my friends saw me reading this book, and stated that such a short book could not adequately cover Soviet politics. This book is the exception and McAuley points out the main themes of the politics of the Soviet Union. For those who want both a basic and advanced educaion on the Soviet political system, this is a nice book. McAuley breaks the Soviet period down into eight chapters and covers the stages of Soviet politics. The following were the basic stages: Revolution, State Building, Industrialization and Collectivization, Terror, Khrushchev and Party Rule, the Administrative-Command System under Brezhnev, and Perestroika and the End of Party Rule.

I found this book a nice analysis of the Soviet Union's politics. It covered in few pages what other authors would convey in 500 pages. This is a nice concise analysis of the subject.