This ground-breaking book examines the Soviet ruling elite over the entire period of Communist rule. It serves as a collective biography of nearly two thousand people who served on the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1917 to 1991. The book is based on archival research, only available after the collapse of communism, and extensive interviews with former Central Committee members. `The product of ten years of research in the newly opened Russian archives ... The author's research and conclusions will cause many of us to reassess our generalizations about the Soviet system and its participants over its seventy years of existence. The book is necessary reading for specialists in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history.' David R.Stefancic, History, Winter 2001`This collective biography of the Soviet ruling elite is based on a decade of exhaustive research of archives, secondary sources, and interviews with surviving members ... it will be a standard reference work for historians or political scientists studying the various phases of Soviet history.' P.Rutland, Choice, May 2001`The authors draw some noteworthy ... conclusions from ... data' Sergei Roy, The Moscow Times Evan Mawdsley is Professor of International History, University of Glasgow. Stephen White is Professor of Politics, University of Glasgow.