The frame-up
Stalin clears the way for himself
The witchcraft trials
The inquisitorial machine in action
Our life is worth but a kopeck
Zorokh Friedmann: the unknown hero
Ivan Smirnov and Mrachkovsky: the end of a friendship
The duty of a party man
Zinoviev and Kamenev: the deal in the Kremlin
Ter-Vaganyan: I don't want to be in the party anymore
Yezhov's vengeance: Anna Arkus
The blackmail
V.M. Molotov: a close call
The last hours
Stalin sees what he failed to foresee
Yury L. Pyatakov
Karl Radek
The denunciation
The liquidation of the Chekists
The execution of the Red Army generals
Yagoda in his prison cell
The medical assassinations: the death of Maxim Gorky
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai N. Krestinsky
The scapegoats
Used and discarded
Stalin's closet friend
Stalin's wife, Nadiejda Alliluyeva, and her brother Paul
Andrei Vyshinsky
Stalin's hobbies
Postscript.