Not much time has passed since one of the superpowers - the Soviet Union - disappeared from the world map. Among many Western researchers of the Soviet era, a prominent place is occupied by a professor at the University of California at Berkeley - Martin Malya. He is the author of the fundamental work "Soviet Tragedy: The History of Socialism in Russia 1917-1991," in which he analyzes the extremely long period of the rule of the communist regime from its inception to its complete collapse. Martin Malya very widely uses previously unknown Western sources of information that shed additional light on historical events in the former country of the Soviets related to such figures as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev... The book is designed for both students of humanitarian universities and a wide range of readers interested in the history of the 20th century.