Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov have written a powerful book that covers the volatile period between 1945 and 1962 as seen by the Soviet leaders. They wrote this book using recently available Soviet documents, personal interviews, archived material, and their familiarity with the Russian culture pertaining to the Soviet Cold War policies under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev. They addressed the Soviet Union's true intentions through a series of intimate portraits that take the reader into the …showed first 75 words of 961 total…

…showed last 75 words of 961 total…I felt this book brought to life the Soviet aspect of the Cold War by using the archived sources and focusing on the specific leaders. I felt this book was able to personalize the Cold War because the authors used personal interviews and integrated their cultural knowledge. I feel this is an extremely important piece of literature in the field of study of the Cold War because it gives a glimpse of "the other side."