Rating: 
Summary: Good Chronology But Lacks Insight
Review: A sadly disappointing book. Though it is a commendable and detailed timeline of Soviet expansionist history, it holds two grave flaws:1) The right-wing slant is a serious problem, regardless of the reader's own political viewpoint. All history is subjective to a degree, but histories written from such an extremist view -- left OR right -- simply render themselves extremely suspect. Slanted too far, histories become propaganda....ironically, one of the very concepts Crozier attacks in the USSR. 2) Reading this book, one learns a lot about what happened, but very little about why. For example, the collapse of the USSR in the late '80s seems to have....well....just happened. There is some discussion of the political forces involved, but mostly just the results, not the cause. And virtually zero on the economic forces at work. The book provides very little true insight into WHY things turned out the way they did. Some odd oversights too. For example, the USSR's compromise over Austria and eventual withdrawal after WWII was a very curious exception to their otherwise uncompromising domination of occupied Eastern Europe. Yet this entire episode gets a few fleeting sentences and no real explanation.
Rating:
Summary: Subtract one star for length
Review: Crozier paints quite a dismal portrait of the collectivist powers that squashed all forms of dissent and pushed forward their grandiose vision for the world. This book lays out in plain view for the world to see-the anti-Communists were right. Marxists were fomenting revolution, terror, war, and all sorts of inhumane practices all through their lifespan and through their satellites and allies. Comrades and fellow travellers at home, similarly, were not the humanitarians they pride themselves on claiming to be (the right of the self-anointed, more like); instead, they were vicious thugs with no minds of their own, instead following orders barked at them by their leaders in Moscow, despite knowledge of Communism's crimes against humanity, peace, and culture; indeed, they turned their back on all this because it is the Marxist nature.
In that sense probably the best indication of this book's compelling style and content, which is backed by nigh-irrefutable evidence such as documents from the archives of Communist regimes, is that of the response it engenders from the far leftist crowd. You see, Marxism is in a most twisted sense the "intellectual" religion of modern times. People who surrender to it abandon all earthly rationality and participation in logical discourse. Instead, everything in life is placed into two categories: progressive and reactionary. "If you are not with us, you are against us." How odd, then, that these self-described nihilists should bemoan such a philosophy on the part of the free-marketers and the true democrats. This is why their best prepared and unified defense against this book is to point out that it is written by a right-winger, and that this somehow makes the book unobjective. One can only ask what they would say to a book that is similarly condemning of the Soviet system and all fellow travellers, yet written by leftists. In fact, this book (and others like it) is already written, and it is "The Black Book of Communism" (an equally, if not more so, recommended work on Communist reality).
So, in the end, anyone can go through the book and find points where they disagree with the conclusions that Crozier has drawn. Such is natural; human nature. But similarly they know that he has the facts on his side. The documentation. The statistics. The reason. This is what makes them hysterical, and it is only to their utter disgrace.
Rating: 
Summary: Encyclopedic, but interesting
Review: Crozier's book is a near chronological summary of the key events of the Soviet Empire's rise and fall. He details the political struggles within virtually every nation targeted by Soviet and Chinese communism over the past 90 years. While the book was interesting reading, I found myself skimming over many details that I knew I would immediately forget (such as the ever-changing titles of the communist parties of each nation, and the names of the players involved). Crozier presents the facts engagingly; his heavy interjection of his own opinion being an effective instrument towards this end. Despite the impressive scope of the book, some of its conclusions seem sparsely substantiated even amidst the mass of detail. Crozier gives his opinion with an authoritative voice and has impressive credentials that lend weight to his conclusions. But, I was often left wanting further evidence to nail these conclusions down; evidence seemingly existent, but almost as if it had been edited out to save space. All in all, with its appendices, and summaries on the likes of Lenin, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Kim Il Sung, Tito and the entire menagerie of communist revolutionaries, Crozier's book is a good read and an especially valuable reference resource.
Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic, but interesting
Review: Crozier's book is a near chronological summary of the key events of the Soviet Empire's rise and fall. He details the political struggles within virtually every nation targeted by Soviet and Chinese communism over the past 90 years. While the book was interesting reading, I found myself skimming over many details that I knew I would immediately forget (such as the ever-changing titles of the communist parties of each nation, and the names of the players involved). Crozier presents the facts engagingly; his heavy interjection of his own opinion being an effective instrument towards this end. Despite the impressive scope of the book, some of its conclusions seem sparsely substantiated even amidst the mass of detail. Crozier gives his opinion with an authoritative voice and has impressive credentials that lend weight to his conclusions. But, I was often left wanting further evidence to nail these conclusions down; evidence seemingly existent, but almost as if it had been edited out to save space. All in all, with its appendices, and summaries on the likes of Lenin, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Kim Il Sung, Tito and the entire menagerie of communist revolutionaries, Crozier's book is a good read and an especially valuable reference resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put the book down!
Review: I loved this book! Despite its size (830 pages!) the book is not dry reading. First of all, 1/3 of the book is taken up by appendixes, notes, and the index. Secondily, the book is broken down into easily digestable chapters that covers a specific period within a geographical location (e.g. Cuba, Korea, Poland). The chapters are short and well written. Yet the whole book is fluid and is hard to put down. You will get the big picture, but you will also get interesting nuggets of information that make the book so enjoyable to read (such as the portrayal of Che Guevara or Mao Tse Tung's true thoughts on Stalin). I love reading about history but fear the dry writing that often plagues it. This is not such an account.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put the book down!
Review: I loved this book! Despite its size (830 pages!) the book is not dry reading. First of all, 1/3 of the book is taken up by appendixes, notes, and the index. Secondily, the book is broken down into easily digestable chapters that covers a specific period within a geographical location (e.g. Cuba, Korea, Poland). The chapters are short and well written. Yet the whole book is fluid and is hard to put down. You will get the big picture, but you will also get interesting nuggets of information that make the book so enjoyable to read (such as the portrayal of Che Guevara or Mao Tse Tung's true thoughts on Stalin). I love reading about history but fear the dry writing that often plagues it. This is not such an account.
Rating:
Summary: Fast moving, fascinating, and thorough!
Review: The focus of the book is on the imperial aims & actions of the Soviet Union, which is indeed a very large topic! Fortunately the book moves extremely quickly, taking the reader from Lenin's revolution to the end of the empire. This author has written detailed books about much of what he writes here, and doesn't feel compelled to "show off" with trivial details. He is detailed enough, however, to give a firm understanding of the events in question. As far as bias goes, I think everyone from (unaffiliated) Marxists, Maoists & Trotskyites (excluding Stalinists) to the moderate Right would not argue with the essence of Crozier's account of the Soviet domination of other nations, using Marxism as a convenient (and all too accepted) cover. If you aren't in denial of this fact, and want to know the details of the issue, you will be delighted by this book! It is clearly a lifetime achievement from an outstanding historian. Another reviewer compared this book unfavorably to Shirer's similarly titled (and also excellent) book on the Third Reich. Having read both, I can say that Crozier manages to remain a little more detached than Shirer did, and did a far better job at telling the important story (including the essential facts) while avoiding the digressions Shirer was prone to. Still, for their relative subject matters, each is certainly unmatched in my opinion. Additionally, I don't know that either was out of line for occasionally expressing disgust when recounting the horrific deeds committed by the respective totalitarian regimes. Crozier does do much less of this, however, probably because the subject at hand is the expansion (and fall) of the empire, not the history of the Soviet Union per se.
Rating:
Summary: There Goes the Neighborhood!
Review: There are number of reasons why this book really is not worth reading. Firstly, one can not read more than two pages without reading quotations reached from second hand sources. For instance, on almost every other page, Mister Crozier quotes either Dmitri Volkogonov or Richard Pipes (not for their writings, but to quote Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin!; couldn't Mister Crozier muster the time or intellect to do research on a personal level!). While Pipes and Volkogonov are certainly authorities on Russian history, there is no reason why they should be quoted on every other page! Furthermore, all of the independent ideas were reached by either Pipes, Volkogonov, or some other equally well known authority on Russian history. So if there is absolutely no information or conclusions that weren't already reached by previous authors such as Roy Medvedev, Richard Pipes, Robert Conquest, or Dmitri Volkogonov; why was this book written? Which brings me to my next point. There is clearly an extreme right wing bias on virtually every page. While this may make good reading if you're on the extreme right; it's quite annoying to centrist McCainites such as myself. This book was obviously not intended for public consumption, but was intended for Crozier's clique of petty minded right wing extremists (Crozier has written a positive biography of the ruthless Spanish dictator Franco; who but an extreme right-wing fanatic could write such a book?). The book seems like the author only read the works of Pipes and Volkogonov, and had absolutely no prior knowledge of the entire twentieth century (I struggled to find any ideas within the book which were formulated by Mister Crozier individually, but alas, there were none). Personally, I would not recommend this book to anybody; I wouldn't even recommend it simply as a shelf filler. Stick with authorities on the subject; such as Robert Service, Robert Conquest, Roy Medvedev, etc, and etc. Because this book will not tell a single person anything new on the subject; unless of course, a person is not acquainted with Soviet History.
Rating:
Summary: Good Survey of the Soviet Union and its Satellites
Review: Very disappointing read. When I read the footnote: "*The methods used by Senator Joseph McCarthy...made him widely unpopular. However, most of those he accused were proved later to have been, indeed working for the Soviet side.", I did a double take. Not being familiar with the Hoover Institution, I looked it up on the net..a totally right wing outfit. I can tolerate a certain amount of an author's bias in history, but this work is so slanted to the right that it has no credibility. I read to learn, not to have right winged propaganda shoved down my throat. I do not recommend this book, unless you are of the author's political persuasion and love distorted history.
Rating:
Summary: There Goes the Neighborhood!
Review: When I started reading this book, I thought that it would be a well-done, scholarly, and more-or-less objective piece of work. But then several things mentioned by the author made me hit the ceiling: 1. His demonization of Salvador Allende of Chile and comparative whitewash of General Augusto Pinochet was outrageous. None of Allende's achievements was listed, while his failures were. Crozier made no mention of how Chile's economy was undermined by the CIA during the last two years of Allende's term. His description of CIA involvement in subverting Allende's Marxist government was limited to its instigation of a trucker's strike. 2. Crozier's description of the government of Grenada also left much to be desired. Its achievements in improving the Grenadian economy and well-being of its citizens were never examined. This doesn't excuse the increasingly hardline actions undertaken by the government in the years leading up to the American invasion, but it is bias, no doubt, when Crozier described Reagan's decision to invade Grenada as right because it was a Soviet and Cuban client state. These two examples alone led me to question Crozier's objectivity. Then I looked inside the front cover of the book, and found that it was published in conjunction with the National Review! And Crozier had been an operative for several Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA! There goes the neighborhood! In all due respects to Crozier, he is a good writer. Otherwise, this work would rate only one star.
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