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muggsyspaniel's review
4.0
Bleak... Bleak...
I always feel a bit sad coming to the end of an epic like this(as part three of a trilogy). You come to know the characters so well that it's like saying goodbye to old friends and acquaintances.
These are friends I've followed from London in 1910 up to the USSR of the late 1930s and by god they've seen some tough times.
The Face of Terror deals with the disillusionment of the main characters and Stalin's Great Purge.
This book gives a tiny peek into Stalin's oppressive regime and even that tiny peek is terrifying. The fear that any word out of place, any action not in line with current thinking can lead to imprisonment and worse makes for some scary reading.
Incidentally one of the real-life characters who plays an important role in the first book and returns in a smaller role in the other two books is Jacob (or Yakov) Peters. Peters was involved in the siege of Sidney Street and later became head of the Cheka. Doing a little reading up on the subject, having just finished the book, I noticed that Peters was executed in the purge 81 years ago tomorrow (25th of April 1938).
This book comes recommended but with the advice to read all three parts in order.
I always feel a bit sad coming to the end of an epic like this(as part three of a trilogy). You come to know the characters so well that it's like saying goodbye to old friends and acquaintances.
These are friends I've followed from London in 1910 up to the USSR of the late 1930s and by god they've seen some tough times.
The Face of Terror deals with the disillusionment of the main characters and Stalin's Great Purge.
This book gives a tiny peek into Stalin's oppressive regime and even that tiny peek is terrifying. The fear that any word out of place, any action not in line with current thinking can lead to imprisonment and worse makes for some scary reading.
Incidentally one of the real-life characters who plays an important role in the first book and returns in a smaller role in the other two books is Jacob (or Yakov) Peters. Peters was involved in the siege of Sidney Street and later became head of the Cheka. Doing a little reading up on the subject, having just finished the book, I noticed that Peters was executed in the purge 81 years ago tomorrow (25th of April 1938).
This book comes recommended but with the advice to read all three parts in order.
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