In the book of Yu. N. Zhukov, a systematic description of the management mechanisms of the USSR in 1934-1938. and those levers of power that were then in the hands of I.V. Stalin are shown. On the basis of factual material, including from Stalin's personal archive, the author convincingly proves that it was not at all the "evil will" of the leader that caused the repressions of 1937-1938: they were approached and desired in every possible way by many party and state figures of the highest level, later presented as "innocent victims." At the same time, the book shows the scale of the democratization of Soviet society, which was supposed to be carried out by a "narrow circle" of power led by Stalin, as well as why these plans could not be implemented.