The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire describes and explains the creation, maintenance and eventual demise of the Soviet regime across post-1945 Eastern Europe. Balancing internal factors such as resilient nationalism against external factors such as America's acceleration of the arms race, Raymond Pearson sets the so-called 'Soviet Empire' within the broader context of global imperialism and decolonisation. Full coverage is also given to the dramatic episodes of Eastern Europe dissent and the chequered career of the ostensibly monolithic 'Soviet Empire'.

This revised and updated second edition features an expanded final chapter on the 'Last Empire', assessing not only its patent strengths and hidden weaknesses, but also its much publicised vices and rarely acknowledged virtues. New documentation that has only become available in the last five years has been incorporated to provide a fuller retrospective historical judgement on the Soviet regime across Eastern Europe.