From Red Terror to Terrorist State

The history of Russia since 1917 has always been told as the story of the Communist Party, with the secret police as its instrument — the sword and shield of the Party. This groundbreaking book revolutionises that account. It argues that the Cheka and its successors were never ancillary but the Party's equal, locked in a century-long contest for control of the state, starting with its founder Felix Dzerzhinsky — a ruthless killer — and succeeding with Vladimir Putin in 1999. It created a unique state, a country that is run entirely by its intelligence apparatus from the smallest detail to the main policies.