SOURCE: Semenova, Olga. “Top to Bottom.” New Statesman 106, no. 2744 (21 October 1983): 23.

In the following review, Semenova examines what Among the Russians and Roy Medvedev's All Stalin's Men reveal about contemporary Russian society.

[Roy Medvedev and Colin Thubron] create a picture of Soviet society by examining some of the individuals who compose it. But they look at this society from opposite ends. The sharp contrast between these two accounts illustrates one of the more serious problems now facing the Soviet leadership.

In All Stalin's Men, Roy Medvedev describes the careers of six of those who rose to prominence in Stalin's shadow and remained in power on his death: Voroshilov, Mikoyan, Suslov, Molotov, Kaganovich and Malenkov. Medvedev's unique position as a ‘dissident’ still tolerated by Moscow has enabled him to gather material which brings these grey figures to life; the modest Voroshilov, a brave partisan leader but incompetent general; the dashing...