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Readers who enjoyed this might also enjoy "The Tunnels" by Greg Mitchell, and "Stasiland" by Anna Funder.

Common monikers given by the newspapers to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Another one was Creator of this Epoch of Unprecedented Renewal.

At every police station and Stasi interrogation room in the country the chairs had an extra layer of foam on the seat. These collected the odors of everyone brought in for questioning. They were preserved in jars and used to assist tracker dogs in pursuit of their quarry. A mere handful of people were captured this way but nothing was too much for state security, which was given 4 billion Marks a year to spend, or 5 percent of the countrys budget.

This was the most fascinating book! I loved it. Maybe you have to be a history buff to really love it but the revolutionary acts within the Soviet empire in the 80's are inspiring.