Sebestyen, Victor

Provides a comprehensive, in-depth biography of Vladimir Lenin that offers a political and personal portrait of the twentieth-century Russian leader. Describes his upbringing and early years; his exile in Europe; his return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first communist revolution in history; his brutal and deadly dictatorship; and his final days. Draws on Lenin's personal papers that are now available.

Documents the collapse of the Soviet Union's European empire (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslvakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) and the transition of each to independent states, drawing on interviews and newly uncovered archival material to offer insight into 1989's rapid changes and the USSR's minimal resistance.