A history of the Soviet Union under Stalin offers a portrait of the Soviet leader as well as the five ruthless politicos who presided over his secret police and became responsible for the deaths of twenty million Soviet citizens.

"The year is 1943, and the three Allied leaders--FDR, Churchill, and Stalin--are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting, and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace. And so a plan is devised--code-named Operation Long Jump--to...

"The award-winning author of Villa Air-Bel returns with a painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of Svetlana Stalin, a woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history's most monstrous dictators--her father, Josef Stalin. Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but...

A British historian, finished with a conference in Moscow on the newly opened Soviet archives, is preparing to leave Russia for good, but a surprise visit from a former Soviet officer suddenly changes his mind. The officer reveals a deadly secret, one which promises to uncover Russia's most closely guarded conspiracy.

The shadowy journey from obscurity to power of the Georgian cobbler's son who became the Red Tsar--the man who, along with Hitler, remains the modern personification of evil: a merciless psychopath who was, as well, a consummate politician, the dynamic world statesman who helped create and industrialize the USSR, outplayed Churchill and Roosevelt, and defeated Hitler? Historian Montefiore tells the story of a charismatic, turbulent boy born into poverty,...

"Exploring more than 100 big ideas on topics as diverse as the rule of law, the extent of liberty, and the justification of warfare, [this book] takes you on a journey through the history of politics, from the influential theories of ancient Greece, Rome, and Asia to modern concepts voiced by today's brightest political thinkers."--Front jacket flap.