On December 23, 1927, Vladimir Bekhterev—one of the most prominent neurologists and psychiatrists of the 20th century—attended a reception with Stalin in the Kremlin. It was a private meeting, so no one knows what the scientist and the tyrant discussed. The next day, Bekhterev died. According to the official version, his death was the result of acute food poisoning. But what really happened? Cold-blooded murder? Revenge for an honest diagnosis? Reprisal for scientific independence? This new book by Italian psychologist and historian Luciano Mecacci is not only a historical investigation into Bekhterev's death but also an attempt to understand the structure of fear, the workings of oblivion, and what happens when science collides with dictatorship. A gripping, meticulously written intellectual investigation—between archive and conjecture, silence and testimony.