The research of British historian Catherine Merridale is devoted to two difficult topics at once - death and memory, which in the case of Russia in the 20th century are not only closely related to each other, but can also explain a lot in Soviet history. Especially for this book, the author, working in the vein of oral history, met and personally interviewed hundreds of surviving witnesses of mass famine, war and repression in the USSR. Their voices, memories and often painful experiences even after many years formed the basis of this study, in which Merridale tried to answer several questions. How did all those tragedies and the huge number of deaths that occurred during the years of Soviet power become possible? How did people who experienced the hardships of Soviet policy feel? And how do the people, who experienced the destruction of traditional culture with the advent of Soviet power, perceive everything that happened to them now?