The Collapse of Soviet Union

choi

The collapse of the Soviet Union  | Russia’s Imperial Agony; The cost of the Soviet collapse has been huge and ongoing. Economist, Dec 3, 2011
http://www.economist.com/node/21540988
(book reviews on two books:
Dmitri Trenin, Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011 and
Lawrence Scott Sheets, 8 Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year journey Through the Soviet Collapse. Crown, 2011)

Note:
(a The review mentions "a Bulgakov-loving, rebellious racketeer in Leningrad."

Mikhail Bulgakov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bulgakov
(1891-1940; Soviet Russian writer; best known for his [1966-1967] novel The Master and Margarita)
(b) The  review says, "Stalin’s birthplace, the 'wine-and-song-filled Georgia,' was one of the first to descend into anarchy. In 1992 two gangsters (both with artistic backgrounds) pushed out a crazy nationalist president (himself a former writer) and roamed into an autonomous Abkhazia on the pretext of having to guard passenger trains with tanks. Soon, a nasty ethnic war consumed this former Soviet playground. It was a 'war that nobody started,' as a Georgian put it at the time."

See Georgia (country)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)
(section 2.7 Georgia after restoration of independence)