This book tells the story of various survivors who carried out the task of restoring the palace to its original splendour.

    While attempting to synthesize a wealth of available historical material, the author assesses the extent to which the disappearance of Soviet democracy was due to objective circumstances, for example the impact of the Civil War, and the extent to which it was the result of Bolshevik politics and ideology. The author shows how there were, contrary to later Stalinist and Cold War mythologies, significant disputes within the pre-Stalinist Bolshevik camp about the preservation of the substantial democratic elements of the October upheaval.

    For 872 days between 1941 and 1944, residents of Leningrad starved and scavenged, and the result was a humanitarian catastrophe with few historical parallels. Elena Kochina was thirty–four when the blockade began, and reasonably prosperous―she had a job, a loving family, and an active cultural life. All of this was promptly effaced, and Blockade Diary is the record what happened next. Her book goes inside the horror to reveal the blockade in its totality. But this is far more than a catalogue of suffering and starvation: Blockade Diary is a testament to selfishness and moral collapse, but also a tribute to generosity and courage. This remarkable book reveals humanity at its best and worst.

    Within days of her arrival she was stripped of her citizenship, and she soon despaired of ever returning home. But then handsome Soviet agent Nikolai Dvorov came up with a plan that both shocked and stunned her....It was a daring scheme, fraught with peril and intrigue. As Nikolai's wife, she would be above reproach. But Katya never dreamed that the attraction she felt for her husband-in-name-only would explode into a passion that would prove all too heartbreakingly real. Any moment their romantic masquerade would end--and she would have to say goodbye forever to the man she now loved with all her heart.

    John W. Parker examines in detail the daily events and attitudes in the Kremlin during the administrations of Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev.