Stalin and the Kirov Murder
Robert Conquest
 <span>On
 December 1, 1934, a lone gunman shot and killed Sergei Kirov, Secretary
 of the Central and Leningrad Party Organization, member of the Moscow 
Politburo, and once considered Joseph Stalin's possible successor. As 
one of the most significant crimes of the century, the assassination not
 only sealed the fates of thousands--and, indirectly, millions--of 
people spuriously connected to the killer, but it eliminated the second 
most powerful man in Russian politics and gave Stalin free rein to 
dominate Soviet policy.<br> Written by the highly acclaimed author of <em>The Harvest of Sorrow</em>, <em>Stalin and the Kirov Murder</em>
 presents the first book-length examination of the case. Robert Conquest
 chronicles the details of the Kirov affair and all of its astonishing 
consequences. He tells us that now, fifty-five years after Kirov's 
murder, <em>glasnost</em> has prompted a new examination of this 
singular crime--one that will perhaps reveal the truth about the case 
for the first time. Based on all the available evidence, including 
official documents as well as the reports of numerous Russian defectors,
 Conquest has written a fascinating, at times chilling, account of the 
murder and its aftermath. He firmly establishes that Stalin not only 
sanctioned Kirov's assassination, but used it as a justification for the
 terror that culminated in 1937 and '38.</span>  </br>