Dmitri Volkogonov – författare

Following his great trilogy of biographies of the giants who dominated the history of the Soviet Union – Stalin (1991), Lenin (1994) and Trotsky (1996) – Dmitri Volkogonov delves deeper into the Soviet archives to produce new character evaluations and political assessments of the seven leaders who ruled the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991.A former general in the Soviet Army’s propaganda department, Director of the Institute for Military History, and Defence Adviser to President Yeltsin from 1991 to his death from cancer in December 1995, Dmitri Volkogonov had unrivalled access to Soviet military archives, Communist Party documents and secret presidential files. Basing his new book on these inside sources, he has continued his pioneering work of revealing the truth behind the activities of the world’s most secretive political leaders.He throws new light on: Lenin’s paranoia about foreigners in Russia; his creation of a privileged system for top Party members; Stalin’s repression of the nationalities and his singular conduct of foreign policy; the origins and conduct of the Korean War; Khrushchev’s relationship with the odious secret service chief Beria; Brezhnev’s vanity and stupidity; the Afghan War; Poland and Solidarity; Soviet bureaucracy; Gorbachev’s Leninism and role in history.

‘Based on research among thousands of unpublished documents concealed in the Communist Party archives until the fall of the regime, Lenin: Life and Legacy is a crushing indictment of the regime’s founder…’Sally Laird, ObserverIn the first fully documented life of one of the greatest revolutionaries in history, Dmitri Volkogonov is free for the first time to assess Lenin’s life and legacy, unconstrained by demands of political orthodoxy. In addition to showing conclusively that the violence and coercion that characterised the Soviet system derived entirely from Lenin, the author also describes in detail the personal life of Lenin: his family antecedents, his private finances, the early funding of the Bolshevik Party, his relationship with his mistress Inessa Armand, and the debilitating illness that crippled the final months of his life

‘Absorbing… I now place Volkogonov’s great biographical triptych [Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky] at the top of my reading list on the Russian revolution.’Niall Ferguson, Sunday TimesFollowing Stalin (1991) and Lenin (1994), Dmitri Vokogonov completes his grand trilogy of biographies of the giants who dominated the history of the Soviet Union.A dynamic and inspiring public speaker, military hero of the Russian civil war, and a brilliant organiser and theorist, Trotsky also played a large part in advocating the system of state terror which was ultimately to lead to the nightmare of Stalinism. Widely regarded as Lenin’s likely successor, he was outmanoeuvred by his implacable enemy, Stalin, expelled from the Communist Party, exiled, and finally murdered in Mexico in 1940 by Stalin’s agents.