The rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union was a key event of the twentieth century. Spanning nine decades from the reign of the tsars to the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, it is a tale of oppression, rebellion, terror, and betrayal. It is the chronicle of a dream that failed, of a utopian vision turned to ashes. The Great Fatherland War, the third of a four-book series encompassing the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,...