Robert Conquest (1917 - 2015) was one of the twentieth century's greatest historians of the Soviet Union. Publication of The Great Terror- Stalin's Purge of the Thirties in 1968 brought him international renown, as did his revelatory later history The Harvest of Sorrow- Soviet Collectivisation and the Terror-Famine published in 1986. As well as holding academic posts at various universities, including the London School of Economics, Columbia University and Stanford University, he was an acclaimed poet, critic, novelist and translator.
More than any other writer, Conquest has been responsible for bringing to the attention of the West the extent of the crimes committed against humanity in the name of Soviet Communism * Sunday Times * Stalin was not only the master criminal; he was the master concealer. It took a master detective, and a poet, like Mr Conquest, to unmask him completely * New York Times * Monumental * Washington Post * A very important book. No one has written about Stalin's terror so deeply -- Milovan Djilas