About the book: year / Stalin was a dictator for so long that most historians considered the officials around him to be mere compromisers and elements of political decoration. This book challenges this notion by showing that behind Stalin there was a loyal group of men who formed an extraordinarily effective team with him from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. Drawing on extensive original research, Sheila Fitzpatrick offers the first detailed description of the members of this inner circle and their families. It shows that these devoted comrades - Beria, Andreev, Khrushchev - not only worked closely with Stalin, but also formed his social circle. Taking readers from the cataclysms of the Great Purges and World War II to the paranoia of Stalin's final years, the book paints an entirely new portrait of Stalin and his circle, changing our understanding of how the Soviet Union was governed for much of its existence. A4 PDF publishing layout saved.