Robert Service's critically acclaimed and compellingly readable history of world communism

Revolutionary practitioner, sparkling writer and icon of the Revolution, Leon Trotsky lived a brilliant life in extraordinary times. Robert Service draws on hitherto unexamined archives to draw a portrait of the man and his legacy.

Service brings 30 years of involvement with Russia and its history to bear on this most controversial and enigmatic of figures. The events of the October Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Terror and, above all, World War II, more open to examination than ever before, are probed to explain the nature of Stalin's personality.

Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on 20th-century history cannot be underestimated. This biography makes use of archive material to piece together his private as well as public life in an effort to give a complete picture of Lenin.

The acclaimed account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of our finest historians of Russia.

A riveting account of Vladimir Putin's rule since his return to the Russian presidency in 2012.