Description: Lucien Bianco's comparative study highlights the similarities between the Russian and Chinese: the all-powerful bureaucracy; the over-exploitation of the peasantry, which triggered two of the worst famines of the twentieth century; control over writers and artists; repression and labor camps; and comparison of Stalin and Mao.
Review Quotes: This book is not only scholarly but extremely vivid. Readers familiar with Bianco's work will recognize his brisk, elegant, yet familiar style. Above all, they will find a deep sense of humanity. There is no doubt that this work will mark an epoch in twentieth-century historiography.--Marie-Claire Bergère, professor emeritus, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (IN ALCO)