Tag: Leo Demidov

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Review of ‘The Secret Speech’ by Tom Rob Smith

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 Tom Rob Smith, The Secret Speech (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle On February 25, 1956, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech to a closed session of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The speech, which was formally titled “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences,” criticized Josef Stalin, his prosecution of the Great Patriotic War (World War II), his multiple purges of the armed forces and party leadership, and other politically driven crimes against the Soviet people. Tom Rob Smith uses Khrushchev’s speech as his point of departure … Continue reading Review of ‘The Secret Speech’ by Tom Rob Smith

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Review of ‘Child 44’ by Tom Rob Smith

georgepwood

 Tom Rob Smith, Child 44 (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2008). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle A serial killer haunts the western Soviet Union in 1953. According to Communist Party doctrine, such a crime cannot exist in a socialist country, where the State has eliminated inequality and poverty and hence the crimes that arise from them. To assert that a serial killer exists—let alone to track him down and seek his punishment—is thus a counterrevolutionary act, a crime that the State takes seriously and punishes severely. Leo Stepanovich Demidov is a decorated hero of the Great Patriotic War and a … Continue reading Review of ‘Child 44’ by Tom Rob Smith