Spanning the years from the foundation of the Soviet state in 1918 to the collapse of Perestroika, this book explores how the wives of the USSR's leaders lived, worked, bore children, fell in love and shot themselves. From Lenin's faithful partner Nadezhda Krupskaya, through the beautiful, free-loving Alexandra Kollontai, Stalin's terrified 17-year-old bride Nadezhda Alliluyeva, the wives of Kruschev and Andropov, finally to modern Raisa Gorbachev, we see the powerbroking of Soviet history revealed from a fresh and fascinating perspective.