Rating: 
Summary: Satisfied my Curiosity
Review: I've been very curious about Soviet history since the fall of Communism in the 1980's. It seems that before then, Soviet life and history was a well kept secret. We knew it was corrupt, and that it had it's evil moments, but I'm not sure we knew how EVIL, evil can be. This book was an eye-opener. Stalin was most definitely the epitomy of EVIL. I read this book twice. Many thanks to Edvard Radzinsky for his dedication to the subject and in trying to help us understand how life under Stalinism was filled with fear and dispair. It's hard to imagine a life under these very extreme circumstances. How can one man scare millions of people into conforming to his own bizzare vision of utopia? One Man. FRIGHTENING. Frightening because it actually happened.
Rating: 
Summary: Contentious Crowd Pleaser
Review: This is not a Stalin biography for professional historians. In this book the reader will not find grain yields in the Ukraine pre- and post- collectivisation, nor will they find tables listing the members of the Soviet state's leadership who were purged during the Stalin years. This is a crowd pleaser, for the immense crowd who enjoys seeing the well-worn bones of the Vozhd's (Boss's) story adorned with the flesh and skin of telling anecdotes, brilliant apercus and titillating (yet reasonable, or at least viable) speculation. The Boss comes alive in Radzinskii's hands. We should be glad it's just a book, and that he's really dead. Buy it and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Almost excellent
Review: Lots of information that is new, although a fair number of people had guessed it before. Plenty of discussion about what happened to Communist Party people, not much at all about what happened to ordinary people during the Terror. But I suppose that there are only so many pages that a person can write before it's time to publish. A good read, and a very instructive one about the abuses of power. Radzinsky speculates nearly as much as he documents, which might mislead a reader new to the subject. An annoyingly high number of typos for names and words transliterated from Russian.
Rating:
Summary: Lenin made Stalin what he was.
Review: Lenin realized that Communism can only survive if merciless brutality is used to supress freedom, and deny a good example to the people, thats why Stalin sieged Berlin in 1947, he did it because West Berlin was an island of freedom and prosperity in an island of police states. After reading this book along with LENIN, you will definitely be paranoid of Communism, as those around Stalin were of him.The paranoia was just. How can some one say that a person who brutally murders 10 million Ukranians amongst other pre-meditated atrocities that resulted from direct orders from that person, not be PARANOID of that person? Easy, all they have to do is lie. Down With The Leftists!
Rating:
Summary: Great, But Suffers Slightly From a Narrow Focus
Review: It's difficult when writing biographies to remain unbiased, and it's even more difficult to maintain that middle ground when you are talking about one of history's largest (if not the largest) mass-murderers. So it's no surprise that Edvard Radzinskyi's biography is decidedly anti-Stalin (if it wasn't, one would have to wonder). Unfairly touted as being based on "explosive new evidence from [the Kremlin]," making it sound more like a Weekly World News story than the compilation of research that it is, "Stalin" nonetheless is an excellent portrait of a purely evil man, but loses its possibilities in its somewhat narrow scope. The story is told two ways: through stories of Stalin's life re-created from documents and official public records, and through stories told by people who knew and feared the dictator. Every detail is meticulously re-created, from Stalin's sketchy early childhood to his rise to power as a revolutionary and thief and his eventual destruction and twisting of the Revolution into Stalinism. People talk about Stalin's various moods and idiosyncrasies, and although Radzinskyi falls short of making any psychological conclusions about Uncle Joe, it's pretty clear that he's collected evidence to support a sketch of a very disturbed, power-hungry, and utterly moral-less individual. The book's only fault is that Radzinskyi, in choosing which vignettes and quotes to keep and which to remove, begins to lean towards one solid view of Stalin: the moral, religious view. There is precious little about Stalin's place historically or politically, and while the moral view certainly has its place (what book about Stalin WOULDN'T include this?) the reader is left wanting to know more about Stalin's eventual place in history, or politics, or sociology, or even psychology (which is touched on, although obliquely). When all is said and done, this is an excellent book for those interested in dictators, Communism gone horribly awry, mass-murderers, and evil. There are better biographies of Stalin out there, balance-wise, but the level of detail here is astounding, and makes this biography stand out. B+
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: This is an excellent portrayal of one of the greatest monsters in human history. I have read some of the other reviews which attempt to cast doubt on the some of the author's findings and conclusions. First off, based upon everything else I have already read on Stalin, I personally have no reason to doubt anything in this book. Secondly, the facts that the author lived through most of this period, and had access to formerly closed Soviet Archives greatly bolsters his credibility. What I think is the most important aspect of this book, however, is the unequivocal portrayal of Stalin as the ...menace that he was. Too often, biographies or portrayals of Stalin describe the horrors and atrocities committed under his rule, yet attempt to partially mitigate these crimes with the rationalizations that they were somehow necessary as Stalin had to industrialize the Soviet Union in a short time period, or prepare the country to defeat Adolf Hitler. This book does a tremendous service to the history of the Soviet Union, and Communism in general, by dispelling such nonsense. The other myth this book destroys is that Stalin somehow "hijacked" the revolution, and was not really the product of the system put in place by Lenin and the Revolution of 1917. Hogwash! As this book shows, Lenin groomed Stalin every step of the way to assume power in the Party and Government. True, they parted ways at the end, and Lenin did write the letter that Stalin was "too rude" to take over. What others have consisently failed to mention, however, was that Lenin had nothing good to say about the other Bolshevik leaders either. While the author doesn't state this, the conclusion I draw is that Lenin resented Stalin for the fact that Stalin had effectively taken away Party, and Government, leadership from him. Stalin was the logical extension of Marxism/Leninism. The book is very well written, and is a highly enjoyable read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Stalin and/or Soviet history. The author is to be saluted for having the courage to face up to this period in Russian history, and present these events in such a way that shows [what]Communism truly represented. Highly Recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent biography of an evil individual
Review: This book demonstrated the extreme evil Stalin put forth upon his country. Unlike recent books describing Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Lenin, and Che Guevara, Stalin seemed to enjoy the misery he gave to others. The first person accounts are quite compelling. This book is highly readable and should be read by all.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Absorbing
Review: I've noticed scores of Amazon reviews in which the writers bend over backwards to minimize or justify the tens of millions slaughtered in the name of Bolshevism and Stalinism. I'm only assuming that these readers are committing the Chomskyesque mistake of being so firmly chained to an ideology, that anything done in its name is excusable. Well, it doesn't take long for the reader of this history to grasp the true scope of the suffering rendered upon the Russians, almost unimaginable, by this nauseating beast of a man, deadlier and more treacherous than 100 Hitlers. Also evident, in spite of the insanity he wrought, is the counterintuitive fact that Stalin was actually completely sane and that every bloody dystopian brick in his Soviet utopia was placed with pure Machiavellian exactitude. Several reviewers of this work have expressed incredulity regarding Radzinsky's ascription to Stalin of such amazing powers of prescience. How could he have, with such rectitude, forecast the actions and inclinations of the other players in the communist party and on the international scene? My question to them is: how could any man have risen to such heights and gained such an intense degree of power WITHOUT this incredible ability? This is the very essence of the General Secretary. His almost paranormal understanding of human political nature, of both individuals and the masses, informed him of not only the likely behavior of his nemeses or of the national political mood, but of the exact moment to initiate his own actions. Were this not the case, this review would likely have been about what a monster Leon Trotsky was. In addition to providing astounding insight, the author regularly addresses and exposes as false prevailing myths about the GenSec and his Bolshevik minions. Radzinsky fills in his portrait with a wealth of incredible archival information and vibrant anecdotes (without omitting counterevidence) which animate the red yellow-eyed rodent to the point of stimulating the reader's olfactory glands. This is quite simply the best political biography I've ever read and every proponent of communism should take note of the fate of all of Stalin's devout, sincere, Bolshevik brothers: he had them shot.
Rating:
Summary: A Dramatic Portrait
Review: Readable, dramatic, and comprehensive, this book gives a dynamic portrait of Stalin from his scrappy childhood day in Gori to his rule over the largest country in the world. From his youthful days Stalin was a proud and violent person; he learned the true nature of politics only in his late thirties, when he realized that it is all about power, while ideal, ideals, acts of terrorism, and propaganda are only the means. The book does a masterful job of integrating Stalin's life into the political setting of revolutionary Russia.
Rating:
Summary: My students have always loved this stunning book
Review: The seniors I teach in high school have used this book for five years, and it has never failed to impress them. Although assigned only about half the book, they never want to sell it used to the incoming seniors, and instead usually claim that part of their sumemr before college will be spent reading what they were not assigned. What does that tell you? Radzinsky's unprecedented access to the heretofore secret archives of the Soviet Union, Communist Party, and Stalin give him unique insight into a man who tried his best to destroy the evidence of his life, including the here well-documented purges of his friends and allies. Not only using the archives, but also personal accounts provided by Russians who still remember Stalin, this book does the best job possible to bring this complicated dictator to life. Each page is mesmerizing in its "usual" portrayal, only to be added to or debunked on the next as the "real" story comes out. This is very well-written, and very entertaining. It is the best book I have used to explain why Stalin became the heir to Lenin, and then how he stayed in power all those years.
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