content: Remnick won the Pulitzer for this unwrapping of 70 plus years of communist control of a collection of nations. In depth, he discusses the purges, the environment and events that allowed them to occur, the Russian view of the Patriotic War (WWII), the rise and fall of communism. Communism was doomed from the start. Here, Remnick explains exactly why. The Russian people are wonderful, I've met many of them. This book also gives the reader an understanding of the world in which they grew up. A world where Stalin was (literally) God. A world without independent thought. Fascinating, heart wrenching. Very readable.