Like a dread spirit he hovered over us, wrote a Soviet poet in 1960, referring to the man whose name is synonymous with Soviet Russia and Communism. In this, the classic biography of Joseph Stalin, Adam B. Ulam explores the secret of his power, the hold his memory still has over the imagination, the suffering he inflicted upon his own society, the unprecedented triumphs achieved by the Soviet Union under his leadership and the mysteries surrounding his death. Seeking answers not only in the character and life of Stalin himself, but in the history of the movement and society in which his career unfolded, Ulam has produced what is arguably the most incisive and revealing biography of one of history's most fascinating figures.