This is not the first such collection, but it is perhaps one of the most successful and it does an excellent job of giving those who do not speak Russian “a taste of the intellectual feast that is underway” (p. xviii). One of the strengths of this volume is that it gives such extensive coverage to the war and late Soviet period. In addition to the documents, the editors provide lucid, clear explanations of the context in which the document was produced. This volume will appeal to the general reader interested in the discoveries made in the archives since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it will also prove invaluable for teachers of Soviet history as a welcome and highly successful addition to the source material currently available in English.Miriam Dobson, EHR, cxxiii, 501