Anne Applebaum

Thus do empires end

‘This book is a chronicle of one day in the history of one city.’ As first sentences go, that one is hard to beat — particularly given that the ‘one day’ is the last day of the Soviet Union, the city is Moscow and the author, an Irish journalist, was there and knew most of the principal actors.

  • Moscow: 25 December 1991

    Conor O'Clery

    Transworld, pp. 423

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Get a free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label when you subscribe to The Spectator for just £12 in our Black Friday sale

  • Free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, worth £30
  • Unlimited access to our website and app
  • Enjoy Spectator newsletters and podcasts
  • Explore our online archive, going back to 1828

Read next

Trending

Fabian Hoffmann

The missile Putin actually used to hit Ukraine

This week, Russia launched a missile attack on Dnipro, Ukraine, reportedly using a new medium-range ballistic missile named ‘Oreshnik’, as confirmed yesterday by President Putin. Putin stated that the missile attack was a response to Ukraine’s use of western-built missile systems inside Russia, including US-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Before this

More on book review

Also by Anne Applebaum

Latest

Comments

Black Friday sale: Get 10 weeks for just $1

Unlimited access to the The Spectator, online and via the app

Already a subscriber? Log in