David Remnick

Remnick, the author, is a young Washington Post journalist assigned to the Soviet Union. Remnick is of Russian descent and Jewish. He speaks Russian and is able to integrate with the local Soviets, making friends and learning about the Soviet culture. As a writer for the Washington Post, Remnick also has access to some of the most influential people in the Soviet Union, including Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Sakharov, as well as some of the most notorious characters in Soviet history. Both of Remnick's grandfathers were imprisoned during the Stalin era, so he is no stranger to the subject. Remnick lives in Moscow and writes about the Soviet Union for four years.

Joseph Stalin

Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in 1879 in Gori, a small village in the Georgia. Stalin studied at a Russian orthodox seminary; his mother hoped he would become a priest. While studying at the seminary...