Tobias Rupprecht is Heisenberg Professor of East European and Global History at Humboldt University of Berlin, and a fellow of the British Royal Historical Society. He is the author of Soviet Internationalism after Stalin.

'This is a book of many virtues, but undoubtedly the most outstanding one is its unrelenting iconoclasm. The conventional wisdom holds that Russia was wrecked by neoliberal reformers who followed disastrous Western advice, and those who want to stick to it will surely be annoyed by Rupprecht's meticulously crafted and substantiated arguments. But intellectually alert readers will certainly find these arguments profoundly stimulating.' Venelin I. Ganev, Miami University, Ohio

• Introduction: the dilemmas of peripheral liberalism; 1. Crisis: economic expertise and politics in a stagnating Soviet Union, 1972–1985; 2. Catastrophe: economic debate, generational divide, and failed reform during perestroika, 1985–1991; 3. Hubris: liberals in power, and the limits to liberal power, in the new Russia, 1991–2000; 4. Diabolus ex machina: Russian liberals and the rise of authoritarian state capitalism, 2000–2022; Conclusion: the failure of Russian peripheral liberalism; Bibliography.

Tobias Rupprecht is Heisenberg Professor of East European and Global History at Humboldt University of Berlin, and a fellow of the British Royal Historical Society. He is the author of Soviet Internationalism after Stalin.

'This is a book of many virtues, but undoubtedly the most outstanding one is its unrelenting iconoclasm. The conventional wisdom holds that Russia was wrecked by neoliberal reformers who followed disastrous Western advice, and those who want to stick to it will surely be annoyed by Rupprecht's meticulously crafted and substantiated arguments. But intellectually alert readers will certainly find these arguments profoundly stimulating.' Venelin I. Ganev, Miami University, Ohio

• Introduction: the dilemmas of peripheral liberalism; 1. Crisis: economic expertise and politics in a stagnating Soviet Union, 1972–1985; 2. Catastrophe: economic debate, generational divide, and failed reform during perestroika, 1985–1991; 3. Hubris: liberals in power, and the limits to liberal power, in the new Russia, 1991–2000; 4. Diabolus ex machina: Russian liberals and the rise of authoritarian state capitalism, 2000–2022; Conclusion: the failure of Russian peripheral liberalism; Bibliography.