Of all the despots of our time, Joseph Stalin lasted the longest and wielded the greatest power, and his secrets have been the most jealously guarded—even after his death. In this book, the first to draw from recently released archives, Robert Conquest gives us Stalin as a child and student; as a revolutionary and communist theoretician; as a political animal skilled in amassing power and absolutely ruthless in maintaining it. He presents the landmarks...

November 1943: World War II teetered in the balance. The Nazis controlled nearly all of the European continent. Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets had already lost millions of lives. That same month in Tehran, with the fate of the world in question, the 'Big Three,' Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin,...

"The story of the alliance formed at the end of World War II by Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin to control the war in Europe and the Pacific, in the process shaping the political landscape of the world"-- "In this exciting, meticulously researched narrative, best-selling author and historian Winston Groom returns to tell one of the most monumental stories of the twentieth century. It is the tale of three remarkably different...

In the middle of World War II, Nazi military intelligence discovered a seemingly easy way to win the war for Adolf Hitler. The three heads of the Allied forces-Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin-were planning to meet in Tehran in October, 1943. Under Hitler's personal direction, the Nazis launched "Operation Long Jump," an intricate plan to track the Allied leaders in Tehran and assassinate all three men at the same time. "I suppose...