Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Constantine Pleshakov is a writer who lives in Moscow.

Reads like a page-flipping thriller… Accounts of [Cold War] events are now bolstered for the first time with firm, enlightened documentary evidence… Offers—both to historians and to the lay generations who inherited the fear without the facts—invaluable insights into the pervasive, simmering war that forged the dominant mindset of the latter part of the twentieth century.

• Preface Prologue: The View from the Kremlin, 1945 Stalin: Revolutionary Potentate Stalin and Shattered Peace Molotov: Expanding the Borders Zhdanov and the Origins of the Eastern Bloc Beria and Malenkov: Learning to Love the Bomb The Education of Nikita Khrushchev Khrushchev and the Sino-Soviet Schism Khrushchev and Kennedy: The Taming of the Cold War Postmortem: Empire without Heroes Notes Index

Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Constantine Pleshakov is a writer who lives in Moscow.

Reads like a page-flipping thriller… Accounts of [Cold War] events are now bolstered for the first time with firm, enlightened documentary evidence… Offers—both to historians and to the lay generations who inherited the fear without the facts—invaluable insights into the pervasive, simmering war that forged the dominant mindset of the latter part of the twentieth century.

• Preface Prologue: The View from the Kremlin, 1945 Stalin: Revolutionary Potentate Stalin and Shattered Peace Molotov: Expanding the Borders Zhdanov and the Origins of the Eastern Bloc Beria and Malenkov: Learning to Love the Bomb The Education of Nikita Khrushchev Khrushchev and the Sino-Soviet Schism Khrushchev and Kennedy: The Taming of the Cold War Postmortem: Empire without Heroes Notes Index

Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Constantine Pleshakov is a writer who lives in Moscow.

Reads like a page-flipping thriller… Accounts of [Cold War] events are now bolstered for the first time with firm, enlightened documentary evidence… Offers—both to historians and to the lay generations who inherited the fear without the facts—invaluable insights into the pervasive, simmering war that forged the dominant mindset of the latter part of the twentieth century.

• Preface Prologue: The View from the Kremlin, 1945 Stalin: Revolutionary Potentate Stalin and Shattered Peace Molotov: Expanding the Borders Zhdanov and the Origins of the Eastern Bloc Beria and Malenkov: Learning to Love the Bomb The Education of Nikita Khrushchev Khrushchev and the Sino-Soviet Schism Khrushchev and Kennedy: The Taming of the Cold War Postmortem: Empire without Heroes Notes Index