The Great Urals

"In both the East and the West, political histories of the Soviet Union have portrayed a powerful Kremlin leadership whose will was passively implemented by regional Party officials and institutions. Drawing on his research in recently opened archives in Moscow and the Urals - a vast territory that since the eighteenth century has been a vital center of the Russian mining and metallurgy industries - James R. Harris overturns this view. He argues here that the regions have for centuries had strong identities and interests and that they cumulatively exerted a significant influence on Soviet policy-making and on the evolution of the Soviet system."--BOOK JACKET.