This is the story of the lives of ordinary people in Stalin's Russia: a world where everyone was afraid to talk and a society spoke in whispers, whether to protect friends and family - or to betray them. Where a junior worker might inform on their superior to get their job; a husband to get rid of a lover; a neighbour out of petty jealousy. Where living a double life became the norm and yet, somehow, a few defied the state.

Orlando Figes' phenomenal book gives a voice to these silent survivors for the first time.