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tessisreading2's review against another edition
2.0
The blurb on the cover of this book calls it "A steamy, Kitty Kelley-ish look at the women behind the men who created and maintained communism." That pretty much covers it; thanks, New York Times! Sensationalist, often based on (third- or fourth-hand) gossip, and casting too broad a net to get the reader fully engaged in anything. That said, when Vasilieva turns her attention to less well-known women, the result is interesting (at least for me, who didn't know anything about them beforehand), and she does make her sourcing pretty clear, so for example when she's suggesting that Stalin might have been his wife's father (not kidding) she explains that she heard it from someone, who heard it from a student of his, who heard it from the wife, who heard it from Stalin... which allows you to treat the information with the respect it deserves. All in all, it's kind of an interesting read, but I don't know that I'd even classify it as history, frankly.
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