Publisher's Synopsis
Through his privileged access to the Presidential Archives and other state and Party archives, Yakovlev is able to put Soviet history into a unique perspective: like Churchill, he was both participant and witness. Indicting the Soviet system from its inception, Yakovlev focuses chapter by chapter on different groups of victims. In all, the author estimates that 60 million citizens were killed during the Soviet years and millions more died of starvation. His book brings into sharper focus than ever before the facts and events of the Soviet Union's legacy of terror.