Covers the entire period of Soviet rule from 1917 through 1963. "A book for the general reader who wants to tackle only one history of modern Russia but wants that one to be essentially complete. As lucid an analysis of recent developments there as any we have had." The New Yorker. Translated from the German by Peter and Annette Jacobsohn. Includes an Index.

(Key Words: Russian History, Communism, Soviet Union, Russia, Grigori Zinoviev, Andrei Zhdanov, L. D Trotsky, Josef Stalin, Constantine Rokossovsky, Vyacheslav Molotov, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Lev B. Kamenev, Nikolai Bulganin, Lavrenti P. Beria, Georg Von Rauch).