Historical sensation! New scandalous book of the main "troublemaker"! Radical reassessment of Russian history. Decisive revision of the Soviet past. Independent view of the tragedy of 1937. The main mystery of the XX century. The most "uncomfortable" and "uncontrollable" historian offers shocking answers to the most pressing and painful questions. What is the secret meaning of the Great Terror? What were the true, not bloated, scale of repression by anti-Stalinist propaganda? Why did you need to clean the party, state security agencies and the army? Did anti-Soviet conspiracies exist in reality? Is mass repression considered a manifestation of Stalin's "paranoia" - or did it have quite rational reasons? Who really unleashed terror? Was the Great Purge of 1937 the "crime of the century" - or a painful but entirely necessary measure? And most importantly: if Stalin lost in the political struggle, would the victory of his opponents be a blessing for the country?