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Summary: not worthwhile when you have a choice
Review: THis porports itself to be an inside account of Stalin. Now we all know Stalin to be such a towering personality and this book just doesnt cut the meat on him. I suggest that when availible you should pick up Volkogonov's "Stalin Triumph and Tragedy" and also Conquests' "Stalin: Breaker of Nations". Nevertheless Radzinsky(a russian Jew descendent) sheds light on the evils of Stalins terror machine and Stlins rise to power in the 20s. Unfortunatly it shies away fromt he horror of the Ukrainian famine and the mass movement of minority populations that were crushed by Stalin(a Georgian himself). THis book does nto shed enough light on the Gulags and the virtual citiies of penal colonies the government created to build projects like the White Sea Canal. This book wears a tad thin on its coverage of Stalins total blindness to the coming German war and the reaction of Stalin to the war(he offered to resign). Not enough attention is given to the 'Doctors plot' and the coming repression of the Jews of Russia. Nevertheless in the panthion of acadmeic studies of Stalin this book is a decent investigation.
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Summary: One of the best on the subject
Review: This is a well written book that covers Stalin's life from birth till death. Radzinsky writes very well and this is an easy book to follow, the book has a great historical importance but also a great story of the USSR and its most tyrannical leader, perhaps one of the worse in history. Stalin surely belongs in the top 5 of histories most evil and powerful leaders. Its rather amazing how much he and Hitler have in common. I would highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in not only Stalin but also the birth of the USSR and its bloody history in the first half of the 20th century. There are few books on the subject that will match this one for clarity of writing and historical accuracy.
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Summary: A View of a Monster that all people should know
Review: If you want to know how evil and far thinking Stalin was, this book is for you. It answers some questions about his rule and his life. The book also made some statements that I will never forget. One line stated that when the book was written in 1997, the author interviewed some people in Russia for the book. Even after the fall of the Soviet and about 45 years after his death, people who lived during Stalin's time WERE STILL AFRAID to talk about him. Think about that, the man had been dead for about 45 years and people were STILL scared of him. Only Stalin could install that kind of fear. The author does a great job explaining everything about how Stalin operated and how he always thought one move ahead of everyone else in the Soviet Union. Anyone who is interested in the Soviet Union or anyone who wants to read about the greatest murder in history, pick up this book and be prepared to learn about how deep and evil one man could be.
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Summary: cooooool
Review: this is a gooodie bookie it makes me so happy when i reed it.
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Summary: Stalin:The First In-Depth Biography. . . .by Edvard Radzinsk
Review: Many books have been written concerning the politics of the early Communist Party. While it is impossible to separate Stalin from politics, this book places more emphasis on the man himself. It gives some insight into the workings of the man's mind.
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Summary: Propaganda, not history
Review: I read this book with great expectations and was incredibly disappointed, to the point of anger.
Stalin was undoubtedly a monster, but this book treats its subject matter, especially during the crucial revolution and war periods, as if it were a cartoon. This alone is forgivable. What is not forgivable are gross distortions of facts and in some cases out and out lies regarding history.
For example, Radzinsky claims the following:
1. Stalin had Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad blessed by a parade of holy icons after the German invasion (as a result of prompting by the orthodox church). Radzinsky claims that this is the ONLY book that exposes this. Why? Well, this is the only book because this didn't happen.
2. Radzinsky claims that the Americans gave into Stalinist blackmail for a part in post-war Japan policy after Stalin threatened to expose the Americans' theft of Japan's national gold. This is a simple lie.
3. America only occupied Japan as 'they already lost China.' China fell to communism in 1949, four years later, and Mao and the Soviets always had a strained relationship.
4. Zhukov received the unconditional German surrender. False, Eisenhower did and the Soviet Marshall who signed the document was executed the next week in Moscow for doing it without Stalin's approval.
5. Stalin was planning on fighting the West just prior to his death, as he had the H-bomb first. A big lie - the Americans tested the first fusion bomb in 1952 and had a working weapon soon thereafter. The Soviets didn't have a test until after Stalin's death.
6. The only minority in the Soviet Union to help the Germans was the Chechyans - only if you ignore the Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Cossacks, etc. Radzinsky ultimately contradicts himself.The book seems to have a few points:
1. Stalin was a monster.
2. Stalin still saved the world from the Nazis because he relied on Orthodox Russian nationalism.
3. The Russians are the strongest people in the world.
4. Russia will never be able to get true help or friendship from the West.
5. Russia must rely on its orthodox nationalism to win. I should tell you I lived in Russia for some time, and I have a good knowledge of Russian history. Further, books of this kind simply do not get published without some political sponsorship. This book was published in 1996 during the presidential campaign in Russia and should be seen in this light - it is more a statement about current Russian political thought than real history.
Bashing the achievements of the West is still good politics and business in Russia. Another book published in the last few years gave 'scientific evidence' how NASA faked the moonlandings. As a result, most Russians younger than 40 do not believe that man walked on the moon. Indeed, this has resulted in some comedy between my friends and myself.
Please, if you insist on reading this book do not read it in a vacuum. I could write a list pages long on factual mistakes in the book, but see for yourself. The last 100 pages, especially the chapters on WWII, are exceptionally bad. I do not believe these errors were accidents - as I stated, this book is more a comment about current Russian politics than Stalin, and anyway, there are too many mistakes to be random. Its a crime, actually: both the subject and the country deserve better.
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Summary: Brilliant and a revealing insight into Stalin
Review: An excellent read, this book takes the reader into the Communist era with ease. The author does an great job of revealing just how extraordinarily monsterous, ruthless, and incredibly farsighted, Joseph Stalin really was. From his childhood to his later years, we can observe the development of one of the world's greatest tyrants and how he used people for his own ends, and how he discarded them when they were of no further use to him. Towards the end of the book, the sense of desperation of Molotov, Kalinin and others as it dawned on them that they may be the next to vanish into the gulags is readily visualised thanks to the great litery style of Radzinsky. If I had a gripe with the book, it was keeping track of personalities as I progressed through the book although I suspect this would not bother someone with a greater knowledge of the people involved in the Soviet Government than myself.
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Summary: Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New
Review: Russian historian and playwright Radzinsky, whose bestselling The Last Tsar chronicled the assassination of the Romanov royal family, has produced a vivid, astonishingly intimate biography of Joseph Stalin. By drawing heavily on previously unavailable primary-source documents in recently opened party, state and KGB archives, he portrays the Soviet dictator as even more sadistic and methodically demoniacal than Western historians had supposed. Pointing to the young revolutionary's repeated escapes and trips abroad, Radzinsky builds an intriguing circumstantial case that Stalin was a double agent working for both the Bolshevik cause and the czarist secret police. He documents how Lenin recruited Stalin into terrorist violence and used him to tame and crush dissidence within the party ranks. Through interviews with Stalin's granddaughter and with the niece of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, the dictator's wife, Radzinsky pieces together the violent quarrel between Stalin and his wife that led to her suicide weeks before she was to have major surgery. Using oral testimonies, the author deduces that Stalin's murderous anti-Semitic campaign of 1953'whose goal was the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan'was a prelude to his plan to launch a third world war. Radzinsky also tracked down one of Stalin's bodyguards, Peter Lozgachev, whose testimony that Stalin's guards deliberately denied him medical attention and left him to die adds weight to the author's hypothesis that Stalin was eliminated by close aide Lavrenti Beria (who reportedly boasted, "I took him out") as part of a conspiracy to avert nuclear Armageddon. Stalin died in 1953, aged 74 by standard sources, although Radzinsky maintains he was a year older. Photos. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour.
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Summary: Captivating Read Of a Fascinating Man
Review: Don't get me wrong - I don't condone for a second what Stalin did to his people as well as the people of this world. But after reading this book, I have to give credit to the man for single-handedly creating a monstrous system which amazingly enough persisted for about a century and more. It amazed me to read that had Stalin lived for another 5 years, he would have single-handedly redrawn the map of the world by starting the next Great War. Especially interesting is the fact that looking from the perpective of a native of India, I feel much relieved that so many of our "revolutionaries" were shot dead by the British. These revolutionaries like Bose, Bhagat Singh, Azad etc. had managed to create a romantic images of themselves by following on the footsteps of their Soviet mentors like Lenin, Stalin, and going by what happened to Russia, India's fate would have been the same. Once in power, these "revolutionaries" would have subverted all the ideals that they were using to gain popularity and would have ruled with an iron fist. Thank God for the the British who had the foresight of ridding India of what surely would have been a menace as the Russians realized when they replaced the monarchy with these revolutionaries. Stalin was indeed a stronger nationalist than Hitler, and mastered the use of terror to make people fall in line. Especially engrossing is the way in which he killed his loyalists one after the other "legally" when these people would self-implicate themselves voluntarily for crimes that they were accused of, but which they had not committed. I continue to be intrigued as to how did both Lenin and Stalin die. Did they die a natural death or were they killed "naturally" when they were physically too weak to save themselves. This book is definitely one of the best non-fiction I have ever read.
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Summary: A Terrifying Page-Turner
Review: Extraordinarily readable. A page-turning account of one of mankinds most terrible monsters. Radzinskii breaths enormous life into his account of Stalin and various historical figures, toadies and doomed friends who fell into Stalin's path. Its clear, intelligent and fascinating. The reader will be amazed at the way Stalin cold-bloodedly manipulated, cajoled, played with and ultimately destroyed virtually everyone in the government and Party, not to mention loyal friends and family, without himself ever being seriously threatened. Radzinskii also offers a look into life in the USSR during Stalin's reign which helps us to understand why and how so many millions of people could put up with such horrendous atrocities. Its all quite amazing and frightening. Absolutely recommended.
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