Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, few remember the ruthless tactics communists used to consolidate power. Others dismiss communist barbarity as typical of backward countries, as though they could not happen in advanced societies. This is the account of a survivor of democratic Czechoslovakia's 1948 communist coup d'état and concentration camps. Secret allegiances in parliament, private militias terrorizing the citizens, and the infiltration of intelligence and law enforcement by communists and their loyalists came together in one coordinated action to overthrow the democratic government. Many who opposed the coup were executed, or sentenced to life in toxic uranium mines. Few managed to escape. One who did, and