Blizhnii Krug Stalina: Soratniki Vozhdia[The Inner circle of Stalin: Comrades of the chief]

This book includes biographies of the seven people who were the Stalin's close comrades-in-arm in various periods of his rule: V.M. Molotov, L.M. Kaganovich, A.I. Mikoian, K.E. Voroshilov, G.M. Malenkov, M.A. Suslov, and M.I. Kalinin. The author chose these people from Stalin's circle because they came into the political arena under Lenin, made successful political careers and survived Stalin's rule, and then continued to be active political players under Khrushchev. Some of them even outlived Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. These people never formed a team but Stalin never expected them to be a team and benefited from their continual intrigues against each other. What they really succeeded in was to be a good player on the top of a totalitarian regime.