Drawing from Hoover Institution archival documents, Paul Gregory sheds light on how the world's first socialist state went terribly wrong and why it was likely to veer off course through the story of two of Stalin's most prominent victims: Pravda editor Nikolai Bukharin and his wife, Anna Larina. Their dramatic story begins with the optimism of the socialist revolution and then turns into a dark tale of foreboding and terror as the game changed from political struggle to physical survival. Told for the most part in the words of the participants, it is a tale of courage and cowardice, strength and weakness, misplaced idealism, missed opportunities, bungling, and, above all, love.