John Donne, in 1624, wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Every one of us is indebted: to other people, to country, to language, to faith, and even to fashions. We are all, like the double helix, intertwined.
Similarly, no book is written free of influence and help. The writer, consciously or not, draws on books and articles, past and present. Friends lend a hand. Foundations and institutions fund a project. Family keeps one sober, literally and figuratively. A publisher, like mine, stands by the work and offers whatever assistance it can. Not to thank those from whom I have drawn sustenance would be to suggest that I live in a vacuum. I therefore wish to express my indebtedness to the many who have made this book possible.
For their moral support, I owe a world of hugs to my wife, Nancy, and children, Scot, Daniel, and Andrea; my sister, Sandra; and my colleagues Elissa Guralnick, Victoria Tuttle, Paul Murphy, Don Eron, Tim Lyons, and William Kuskin.
For his ongoing encouragement, I cannot measure the worth of Frank Delaney.
For her scholarly help, I owe more than I can express to Susan Weissman, professor of politics at Saint Mary’s College of California.
For her illuminating scholarship on denunciation, without which I could not have written this book, I am grateful to Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick, formerly from the University of Chicago and currently at the University of Sydney, Australia.
For their financial support, I appreciate enormously the Kayden Research Grant Committee at the University of Colorado, and Chancellor Philip DiStefano.
For their wondrous generosity to my scholarship students, I thank Martin and Gloria Trotsky.
For their expertise in bringing this book to press and promoting it, I am immensely grateful to Jehanne Schweitzer, senior production editor; Gene Margaritondo, copyeditor and plot doctor; Kalen Landow, marketing; Sam Caggiula, public relations; Karie Simpson, assistant editor; A. J. Kazlouski, proofreader; and Clare Cox, translation rights.
A special appreciation is reserved for Marcus Brauchli, friend and newspaperman extraordinaire.
And as always, I applaud Rick Rinehart for having the courage to publish literary fiction about a dark side of Russian history, especially given that some publishers shied away from my former novel, Stalin’s Barber, with the explanation that few American readers would know the name “Stalin” or have any idea what transpired during the Soviet period.
Paul Levitt
Boulder, Colorado