Black Garden

&quote;Brilliant.&quote;-Time &quote;Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter.&quote;-The New York Review of Books &quote;Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all side been better described-or indeed, better explainedOffers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before.&quote;-Foreign Affairs Since its publication in 2003, the first edition of Black Garden has become the definitive study of how Armenia andAzerbaijan, two southern Soviet republics, were pulled into a conflict thathelped bring them to independence, spell the end the Soviet Union, and plunge aregion of great strategic importance into a decade of turmoil. This importantvolume is both a careful reconstruction of the history of the Nagorny Karabakhconflict since 1988 and on-the-spot reporting of the convoluted aftermath. Partcontemporary history, part travel book, part political analysis, the book isbased on six months traveling through the south Caucasus, more than 120original interviews in the region, Moscow, and Washington, and uniquehistorical primary sources, such as Politburo archives. The historical chapterstrace how the conflict lay unresolved in the Soviet era; how Armenian andAzerbaijani societies unfroze it; how the Politiburo failed to cope with thecrisis; how the war was fought and ended; how the international communityfailed to sort out the conflict. What emerges is a complex and subtle portraitof a beautiful and fascinating region, blighted by historical prejudice andconflict. The revisedandupdated 10th-year anniversary edition includes a new forward, a newchapter covering developments up to-2011, such as the election of newpresidents in both countries, Azerbaijan's oil boom and the new arms race inthe region, and a new conclusion, analysing the reasons for the intractabilityof the conflict and whether there are any prospects for its resolution. Tellingthe story of the first conflict to shake Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union, Black Garden remains a central accountof the reality of the post-Soviet world.