The result of a unique international collaborative investigation by Russian, French, and Swiss scholars into hundreds of private, unpublished diaries found in remote libraries, archives, and family holdings, Intimacy and Terror paints a broad picture of Russian life in the 1930s, the harshest years of Stalin's reign. From ordinary citizens far removed from political turmoil to those actively engaged in political life, Intimacy and Terror brings us the true-life counterparts we remember from classic Russian fiction.