"A RARE ACHIEVEMENT!" DAVID HALBERSTAM FOUR YEARS OF INTENSE STUDY, PERSONAL INTERVIEWS AND FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE HAVE VIELDED THE LIFE, THE HEART, THE SOUL OF A NATION... "Smith has seen Russia. He has talked all night beside a steaming samovar in cramped flats and dirt-floored peasant izbas. He has done what all great observers of Russia have done... he has gone to the people, made friends with them, studied their customs and government at a close range. He brings us Russia whole: A BOOK OF SHIMMERING COLOR... SPLENDID!" Harrison Salisbury, Los Angeles Times "BRILLIANT." William F. Buckley