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From the shadows of Tsarist Russia to the brutal heights of Stalin's reign, Stalin's Secret Services: Henchman and Poisoned Tipped Umbrellas traces the evolution of the Soviet secret services and the men who wielded their terrible power. At its centre was Lavrentiy Beria, head of the NKVD and whose ruthless ambition helped build a criminal state where paranoia reigned and murder was policy. The narrative continues with Pavel Sudoplatov, a shadowy assassin known as an illegal, who orchestrated the assassination of Trotsky and the theft of America's atomic secrets. As the line between ideology and brutality blurs, the book draws disturbing parallels between Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi regime, exposing the dangerous symmetry between two of history's most feared dictators in acts such as the 1940 Katyn massacre. In the final chapter, the book takes a step back, examining the deeper philosophical questions behind autocracy: the fragility of intellectual and moral freedom, the corrupting allure of power and the enduring importance of free will. Stalin's Secret Services is a sobering reminder of how easily nations ? and individuals ? can be swept into darkness. AUTHOR: Andrew Sangster has six degrees, in Law, Theology and four in history including his doctorate. An ordained priest, he has trespassed away from the Church to teaching and the study of history. He has taught in grammar schools and at Eton College, was a headmaster for some nine years and has assisted post-graduate students of history. He has more than twenty published history books both in the United Kingdom and overseas with some co-authored with Pier Paolo Battistelli, the well-known Italian historian. When not called for Church duties he studies the lesser-known aspects of modern history and plays chess for relaxation. 16 b/w illustrations