Subtitle: A History of the Soviet Union, 1917 to Present

This magnum opus has been universally acclaimed as the best single-volume history of the Soviet Union in print. Its two authors are both highly-respected scholars who spent most of their lives in the Soviet Union and were educated there. They lived through many of these events, and gained a keen feel for the texture of the Soviet Empire.

The book starts with a chapter entitled "Before October 1917" and works its way to 1985 and the rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev. The New York Times calls it "Marvelous," The Los Angles Times describes it as a "richly illuminated account," and The Boston Globe says, "no chronicle could be richer." Anyone remotely concerned with or interested in Russia should listen to this book.