Eternal Russia has a powerful title conveying a profound truism…it is an excellent book rooted in history while covering thoroughly the drama of events after 1987.
-- David Owens Sunday Times
[Steele’s] analysis of the changes in Russia in the age of Gorbachev and Yeltsin must rank among the best ‘instant histories’ yet written… A clear and fascinating narrative of the major events of the last ten years—most of which he witnessed—in what was the USSR.
-- Mark Almond Sunday Telegraph
[Steele’s] knowledge of the former Soviet Union and modern Russia is formidable… His description of the fall of the Russian empire, in the Third World, eastern Europe, and finally in the Soviet Union itself, is riveting… Here is a writer confidently in command of his subject.
-- Barney Bardsley London Tribune
[Steele’s] accounts of Russian coups, aborted or not, and other convulsions are admirably clear and thrilling.
-- Colin Welch The Times
Amid the Stygian pessimism, half-baked advice, half-understood facts, and confused thinking that informs much Western comment on ‘Zhirinovsky’s Russia,’ Jonathan Steele’s book stands out. He does not treat Russia as if it were a mysterious planet inhabited by little green men. He has lived there.
-- Rodric Braithwaite The Guardian
[This] book is written in a highly-engaging style, with exciting firsthand accounts of the author’s adventures in covering the unraveling of the Soviet empire, including detailed descriptions of the events of August, 1991, and October, 1993… Steele’s work stands as one of the best available works documenting events in Russia since the late 1980s… [It] provides a superb feel for how events unfolded and contains many sound judgments about a wide variety of aspects of life in contemporary Russia.
-- Taylor E. Dark International Journal of Comparative Studies
The author’s history is well written and lively, profiting from the fact that Steele actually found his way to the scene of crucial developments as they occurred—to Gorbachev in captivity as well as to the Baltic republics and Afghanistan. The author is a good narrator who shows great sensitivity for the human feelings involved in the various situations… Steele does not pretend to have answers to all the important questions he raises about this history still so much in progress, but he has done an excellent job of formulating those questions.
-- Mediterranean Quarterly
A provocative and well-written interpretive analysis of the collapse of Russian communism and of the prospects for democratic consolidation… A thought-provoking analysis. One of the strengths of the book is Steele’s ability to weave into the analysis his own first-hand observations from his days in Moscow… It makes for compelling reading that will appeal not only to scholars of Russian reform, but also to students and general readers interested in recent Russian political developments.
-- Russell Bova Perspectives on Political Science
Steele effectively mixes this big-picture perspective with eyewitness accounts of turning points like the August 1991 coup. [This book] will help untangle Russia’s fast-moving recent history for lay readers and specialists alike.
-- Robert Decker Library Journal
This is an extraordinarily important and timely book…(that) utterly demolishes the rationalizations of both the Russian and American governments about Yeltsin’s ‘democratic dictatorship’… This is the best history I know of on the whole Gorbachev–Yeltsin period to date. It will be indispensable for specialists, enlightening for the general audience, (and)…it will have a major impact in the debate now arising over Yeltsin and democracy.
-- Robert V. Daniels, author of Gorbachev and the End of Communism
