The author tells the extra- ordinary story of his life from its beginnings on New York's Lower East Side in 1898 to the dramas of Chernobyl, Daniloff and Goldfarb in 1986 As a doctor he went to Russia in 1921 for six months to work with famine victims - and stayed for nine years He was there for the massive outpouring of grief at Lenin's funeral and has met and worked with most of the important statesmen of the world