The Ideology. Stalin learned something from the purges: the power that ideas have over men’s minds. Since the death of Lenin he had repeated, to the point of nausea, the old Leninist slogans.

They proved the better maneuverers. Death of a Rival. Zhdanov’s own son, Yuri, was chief of the scientific propaganda section. Malenkov, with Stalin’s backing, forced Yuri to publish a ...