Heydar Aliyev

"The sincerity and candour of these truthful accounts and the interviewer's amazing skill in drawing out eyewitness accounts, makes Elmira Akhundova's series an outstanding work of documentary prose and, indeed, the principal work of this political wn'ter's career."

"I am a historian and a professional writer of political biographies; I have written about almost all the top Soviet and Russian leaders, but I have never previously encountered a book like this in the genre. I have no hesitation in saying that this work is the best book about a political leader that I have ever read."

“This is a unique piece of work — I have no doubt of that. I humbly kneel before you. In all likelihood your contemporaries still do not realise what a colossal task you set yourself.”

“Elmira Akhundova’s multivolume work brings us to the unequivocal conclusion: a unique leader worthy of such a biography graced our country in the second half of the 20th century. We can only admire the patience and industry of an author able to produce such a majesdc opus.”