A visit to a very deadly Cloud-Cookoo Land. An entire nation that existed in the grip of a tyrant for whom power was the only good and holding power the only principle, no matter how dressed up in fancy socialist language.

This book draws on the recently opened government files in the former Soviet Union to show that Stalin created the Doctors' Plot out of bits and pieces of information that he cobbled together slowly over several years, only to trot out the full conspiracy when he was ready. The goal: create a rationale for a full purge of the security forces and anyone else he suspected. At the same time, the purge would let him indulge in his anti-Semitism by allowing him to complete the work of the "anti-cosmopolitan" campaign of 1948 and the prosecution and liquidation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee from the war years.

So what stopped the purge? Stalin's timely stroke, which the authors show was probably left untreated for several hours as his associates tried to figure out what to do with their fallen leader.

All along, the authors argue that Stalin was not simply paranoid, but rather a cunning tyrant who manufactured enemies on the domestic front in order to cause a crisis. The crisis then allowed Stalin to remove anyone he desired, as the "plot" was conceived in very broad terms, broad enough to allow Stalin to drag anyone into it.

This book is not always an easy read, but it is a fascinating way to delve into the dark heart of the Soviet-Stalinist regime. ( )

The horribleness of the events described pulled me through this, but I have to say it is not a well written book. There is too much repetition of the same points and quotes and too much piling of endless documentary references on top of each other at the expense of, in my view, too little analysis. I spotted a few careless errors and inconsistencies between details in the text and those details in the biographical appendix as well. A bit of a struggle in parts. ( )