The history of Russia after 1917 is traditionally written as the rise of the Communist Party from Lenin to Stalin to Gorbachev. Is that still the correct approach?

Based on a trove of new historical sources from inside the Russian secret services, this exceptional book retells the story in the light of modern Russia and starts with the pivotal role of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the leader of the Communist Secret Service, the Cheka. He is relatively unknown, but was even more important in the overthrow of the Tsarist regime and submission of its people than Lenin. The leaders of the various guises of the Cheka fought tooth and nail to wrest state control from the Communist party. With the presidency of Vladimir Putin in 1999, Dzerzhinsky’s ultimate goal finally came to fruition. It explains why modern Russia is a state without ideology, the world’s only mafia-state programmed to forever extort, pillage and loot.

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Dr Yuri Felshtinsky, a prominent author, historian, and journalist, is an expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union and its Secret Service. He has been featured in hundreds of print, TV and radio interviews worldwide. He received PhDs from Rutgers University and Moscow University, taught at Boston University and was a Fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University.