I Saw Democracy Murdered 
The Memoir of Sam Russell, Journalist
Ed. Colin Chambers 
Routledge
Pbck £27.99

I Saw Democracy Murdered is the memoir of Sam Russell (1915–2010), a communist journalist and British volunteer with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, based on interviews with him made by Chris Myant and Colin Chambers, who edited the final copy.

The book covers his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, his time as a journalist at the Daily Worker and The Morning Star, and his later disillusionment with Stalinism. In his capacity as a journalist, Russell travelled extensively and was frequently a front-row spectator at significant historical events, from the formerly occupied Channel Islands at the end of World War II to the show trials of communists in eastern Europe in the 1950s. 

Many of his generation lived sheltered lives and saw very little of the blood-soaked times they lived through. A few saw a great deal of it, but very few saw as much as Sam Russell.