About the Author

Kevin Ruane read Classics at Peterhouse and worked at the top secret GCHQ Cheltenham before joining the BBC. A journalist for over 30 years and one of the BBC's most experienced reporters, Ruane covered the Sakharov human rights movement from 1977 as BBC Moscow correspondent and thereafter the nascent Solidarity movement from 1980-1986 as the BBC's Warsaw correspondent. He previously wrote The Polish Challenge (1982, BBC Books).

Reviews

'A dramatic story and Kevin Ruane tells it with pace.' Peter Conradi Sunday Times 'Everyone who would like to find out how communism was finally defeated should read this profound and well-documented book.' LECH WALESA, Nobel Peace-Prize Winner / former Leader of Solidarity and President of Poland