Joshua Rubenstein’s riveting account takes us back to the second half of  1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin’s murderous  regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected U.S. President  Dwight Eisenhower with armed force, and was also broadening a vicious  campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin’s sudden collapse and death in  March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no  overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in  the twentieth century.

The Last Days of Stalin is an  engaging, briskly told account of the dictator’s final active months,  the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international  events in the months after his death. Rubenstein throws fresh light on