Following his country's victory over Nazi Germany, Joseph Stalin was widely hailed as a great wartime leader and international statesman. Unchallenged on the domestic front, he headed one of the most powerful nations in the world. Yet, in the period from the end of World War II until his death, Stalin remained a man possessed by his fears. In order to reinforce his despotic rule in the face of old age and uncertain health, he habitually humiliated and terrorized members of his inner circle. He had their telephones bugged and even forced his deputy, Viacheslav Molotov, to betray his own spouse...

Reveals the brutal acts of local functionaries in Stalin's Soviet Union that added up to more than a million citizen deaths in 1937-38. Spurred by ambition or fear, local secret police filled quotas for arresting "enemies of the people"--even when it meant fabricating evidence.