Vladimir Zhirinovsky shocked the world by winning 24 percent of the popular vote in Russia's 1993 parliamentary election. Now, freely elected by the Russian people as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, his plans for the future of Russia are clear: "When I come to power, I will be a dictator. Russia needs a dictator now." Six million Russians agreed with him in 1991. How many will in 1996?

A biographical, psychological, and psychoanalytical study of the man, Zhirinovsky is also a portrait of the nation that may be prepared to entrust him with its fate.