The orthodox view of Vyacheslav Molotov is that he was no more than Stalin’s faithful servant; a dogmatic conservative communist of little or no imagination. Molotov was, indeed, Stalin’s right-hand man while from the 1920s the two men presided over a brutal, authoritarian communist system that led to the deaths of millions of people. But their partnership was far more complex.

This is the first comprehensive biography of Molotov and reflects the range of sources that have become available to historians since the fall of the USSR. It is a commentary on Soviet history. Molotov played his part in revolution, Civil War, Lenin's Russia, Stalin's struggle with the oppositions, collectivization, industrialization, the Terror, the Great Patriotic War, the beginnings of the Cold War, and in the Khrushchev era.