The book is equal parts history and eyewitness account , covering the collapse of the Soviet Union . Opening with the excavation of the corpses of Poles killed in the Katyn massacre , '' Lenin 's Tomb '' begins by describing the structural flaws present from the country 's early days , and then uses individual accounts from a wide variety of contemporary individuals to display the modern consequences of these historical errors and cruelties
Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire