Books like Children of the Arbat

To the two people among my goodreads friends, who are interested in Russian history and culture - this novel (first in a trilogy) covers the era of Stalin's reign of terror and is both riveting and historically accurate. It is mostly about a group of young people caught up in the workings of Stalin's totalitarian machine; but it also presents Stalin's POV, walking readers through his delusions of grandeur and fears of losing power, that ultimately lead him down the path of totalitarianism. I listened to Children of the Arbat along with A History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev, and I am confident you can get a comprehensive picture of the period from just Rybakov's work.