Russia's past was steeped in violence and intrigue. Under the reign of the early Tsars the barbaric practice of serfdom developed and her people were enslaved. When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels offered a blueprint for action and an ideology in their Communist Manifesto the class struggle began. This story penetrates the century-long barrier of mystery and suspicion and reveals the cultural heritage, the dominant personalities, and the social and political upheavals that have made the Soviet Union one of the most powerful nations in the world today.

From the book