After biographies of the giants of Soviet history - Stalin (1991), Lenin (1994) and Trotsky (1996) - Volkogonov delves deeper into the Soviet archives to produce new character evaluations and political assessments of the leaders who ruled the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991: Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev.

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.