The year is 1986. Inside the Soviet Union — the unthinkable is about to happen… Sweeping across the social strata of Soviet Society, from the Gulags to the highest offices in the Communist Party, from the peasantry to sophisticated literary circles, Russia is a powder keg ready to explode… The death of Leonid Brezhnev has left the party leaderless. The fearless Natalya Roginova is positioning herself as a reformist figure against the brutal KGB General Semyon Kuba, who is determined to preserve the status quo. A beautiful young student, Zoya Densky, is politicized by the arrest of her father, the central figure in a new movement to restore workers’ rights. Igor Bukanksy, the disaffected editor of an Arts magazine, has been passed a novel of rare genius, but to publish it would be an instant death sentence. Meanwhile the stylish wife of an American diplomat in Paris learns that the mysterious man who shared her bed the night before is a Soviet assassin. In the great cities and on the distant steppes… in the factories and on the farms… in the universities and in the prison camps… in the highest circles of government and in the lowest depths of outcast society… giant forces are building… Russia, in all its grandeur, brutality, and impenetrable mystery, has been transformed into a human volcano about to explode… Teeming with unforgettable characters, The Fall of the Russian Empire reveals the brutal realities of Soviet life and the inspiring spirit it takes to endure and overcome a violent regime