Snake Eater

The plot of Viktor Suvorov’s new high-stakes historical novella “Snake-eater” takes place in 1936 amid the unending struggle for power, intrigues, and conspiracies within the leadership of the USSR. The novella tells about the very beginning of the process by which Stalin tamed the Soviet Union’s punitive machine. Readers will learn under what circumstances the fates of the main characters of the novels “Control” and “Choice” brought them together—and what price each of them had to pay for unlimited power and the ability to direct other people’s destinies.

“Snake-eater” is a unique historical reconstruction of the events of 1936, including little-known events. The prototypes of its main heroes—Aleksandr Holovanov, Shirmanov, Sey Seich, and others—were real historical figures who worked side by side with Stalin and helped him rise to the summit of power. At the center of the narrative is the career of the main character, nicknamed Snake-eater, in the NKVD: from a mere observer, to an agent of external surveillance, to an executioner and a dispenser of death sentences who worked with particularly important “clients,” and finally to an authorized official for especially important matters, deputy to one of Stalin’s inner circle, and the leader of a special strike group carrying out secret operations across Europe.