Analyzes the nature of power in the USSR and its evolution since the Bolshevik Revolution. The main thrust of this work, however, is in tracing the fragmentation of power since Gorbachev introduced his reforms and examining the changes in the power structure as a result of perestroika.

Political power and Soviet society; transformation of power in the USSR; the ruler, the party and the bureaucracy - traditional sources of power in the USSR; the military and the KGB; the government and the parliament; republics and nationalities; Soviet society - people's power?; three days that shook the world; whither the Soviet Union?