favourites: Volodya Shakhurin, the son of the People's Commissar for the Aviation Industry, and the stunningly beautiful Nina Umanskaya, 15 years of age, the daughter of the former Soviet ambassador to the USA. By all accounts, the former shot the latter before turning the gun on himself. The Stone Bridge is a detailed historical reconstruction of the Stalinist era as seen through one man's seven-year investigation into the case of the 'young wolves' - a Nazi-inspired secret society inside an elite Kremlin school. Based on a true story, The Stone Bridge resurrects actual historical figures and brings to light official documents from NKVD case files. The book shines the spotlight on a past with which the country has never properly come to terms, and which therefore - tragically - has a poisonous effect on present-day Russia.

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