Editor David R. Stone is professor of history at Kansas State University. He is a leading authority on the military and political history of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. As well as writing numerous journal articles, he is the author of two major studies: "A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya" and "Hammer and Rifle: The Militarization of the Soviet Union 1926-1933".