The Shortest History of the Soviet Union

'Close to a miracle... an immensely readable overview of the entire history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, full of anecdotes and lively detail, but also meeting the highest academic standards.’
SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK on The Shortest History of the Soviet Union

'A series of wonderful, horrifying and, at times, hilarious insights into what the top Stalinists were actually like.'
DAVID AARONOVITCH on On Stalin's Team

'A superbly researched, intelligent book’
GUARDIAN on On Stalin's Team

'It might seem strange to describe a book about Joseph Stalin and his entourage as a sheer pleasure, but that's what Fitzpatrick's book is... it manages to convey what was human and complex about something stark and inhuman.'
FOREIGN AFFAIRS on On Stalin's Team

'Fitzpatrick conveys, often with wry amusement, the texture of life as a student in Moscow'
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT on A Spy in the Archives

'Absorbing... exceptionally lucid... a remarkable record not only of personal history, but of Soviet and indeed British history as well'
GUARDIAN on A Spy in the Archives

'One of the most influential historians of the Soviet period describes what it was like to live in the 1930s – years of unimaginable hardship and brutality, but also of idealism, a surreal melange that [Fitzpatrick] captures with admirable matter-of-factness'
FOREIGN AFFAIRS on Everyday Stalinism