Stalin: a biography

Overthrowing the conventional image of Stalin as an uneducated political administrator inexplicably transformed into a pathological killer, [the author] reveals a more complex ... story behind this notorious twentieth-century figure. Drawing on unexplored archives and personal testimonies gathered from across Russia and Georgia, this is the first full-scale biography of the Soviet dictator in twenty years. [The author] describes in unprecedented detail the first half of Stalin's life -- his childhood in Georgia as the son of a violent, drunkard father and a devoted mother; his education and religious training; and his political activity as a young revolutionary. No mere messenger for Lenin, Stalin was a prominent activist long before the Russian Revolution. Equally compelling is the depiction of Stalin as Soviet leader. [The author] recasts the image of Stalin as unimpeded despot; his control was not limitless. And his conviction that enemies surrounded him was not entirely unfounded. Stalin was not just a vengeful dictator but also a man fascinated by ideas and a voracious reader of Marxist doctrine and Russian and Georgian literature as well as an internationalist committed to seeing Russia assume a powerful role on the world stage. In examining the multidimensional legacy of Stalin, [he] helps explain why later would-be reformers -- such as Khrushchev and Gorbachev -- found the Stalinist legacy surprisingly hard to dislodge. Rather than diminishing the horrors of Stalinism, this is an account all the more disturbing for presenting a believable human portrait.-Dust jacket.

Originally published: Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ©2005.

The revolutionary -- Stalin as we have know him -- The family Dzhughashvili -- The schooling of a priest -- Poet and rebel -- Marxist militant -- The party and the Caucasus -- On the run -- At the centre of the party -- Koba and Bolshevism -- Osip of Siberia -- Return to Petrograd -- Leader for the party -- The year 1917 -- October -- People's Commissar -- To the front! -- The Polish corridor -- With Lenin -- Nation and revolution -- Testament -- The opportunities of struggle -- Joseph and Nadya -- Factionalist against factions -- Despot -- Ending the NEP -- Terror-economics -- Ascent to supremacy -- The death of Nadya -- Modernity's sorcerer -- Fears in victory -- Ruling the nations -- Mind of terror -- The great terrorist -- The cult of impersonality -- Brutal reprieve -- Warlord -- The world in sight -- Approaches to war -- The devils SUP -- Barbarossa -- Fighting on -- Sleeping on the divan -- To the death! -- Supreme commander -- The big three -- Last campaigns -- Victory! -- The imperator -- Delivering the blow -- The outbreak of the cold war -- Subjugating Eastern Europe -- Stalinist rulership -- Policies and purges -- Emperor worship -- Dangerous liaisons -- Vozhd and inte…