Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine's new biography of Deng Xiaoping does what no other biography has done: based on newly discovered documents, it covers his entire life, from his childhood and student years to the post-Tiananmen era. Thanks to unprecedented access to Russian archives containing massive files on the Chinese Communist Party, the authors present a wealth of new material on Deng dating back to the 1920s.

The Bolshevik -- Born in the Year of the Dragon -- From Paris to Moscow: the lessons of Bolshevism -- From Xi'an to Shanghai -- The Guangxi experiment -- The Maoist -- "The spirit of five fearlessness" -- Master of the Taihang Mountains -- At the forefront of the new democratic revolution -- Chief of the Southwest Region -- The Beijing Hippodrome -- "Critique of the cult of personality" and its consequences -- "A great growing force" -- Being and consciousness -- "Yellow cat, black cat" -- "Number two capitalist roader" -- Arrest and exile -- The pragmatist -- "Soft as cotton, sharp as a needle" -- New trials -- Practice as the criterion of truth -- The cardinal principles -- "Let some families get rich first" -- One country, two systems -- Reforms and democracy -- The Tiananmen tragedy -- A retired patriarch.