About the book: 2012 / The action of Viktor Suvorov's new action-packed historical story "Snake Eater", a prequel to the best-selling novels "Control" and "Choice", takes place in 1936 in the setting the ongoing struggle for power, intrigues and conspiracies within the leadership of the USSR. The story tells about the very beginning of the process of Stalin taming the punitive machine of the Soviet Union; the reader will learn about the circumstances under which fate brought the main characters of the novels “Control” and “Choice” together and what price each of them had to pay for unlimited power and the opportunity to control the destinies of other people. The story “Snake Eater” is a unique historical reconstruction of events 1936, including little-known events, and the prototypes of its main characters - Alexander Kholovanov, Shirmanov, Sei Seich and others - were real historical figures who worked hand in hand with Stalin and helped him rise to the pinnacle of power. At the center of the story is the career of the main character, nicknamed Zmeeed, in the NKVD from a simple observer, an external surveillance agent and executioner, an executor of death sentences working with especially important “clients”, to a commissioner for especially important cases, a deputy of one of Stalin’s close associates and the head of a special strike group conducting secret operations throughout Europe. A special appendix contains more than 50 photographs from the 1930s, including unique archival photographs published for the first time, telling about the characters in the story and the prototypes of its heroes.