This book is eye-opening. There are books that focus mostly on what it was like in the Gulag, there are books about Party leadership during Stalin's reign. This book does an amazing job of showing how Stalin's decisions affected the lives of every day people. The sociologist in me was delighted. Figes does a great job of balancing events during different years with personal stories, of different families and people. There are a few personages he follows throughout the book, but all the stories are fascinating and terrifying and sad and amazing. It's one thing to sit in a classroom and hear generalities about the Great Terror it's quite another too see exactly how the craziness affected everyday people and tore families apart.