Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic but riveting
Review: Mr. Radzinsky has written a biography that even though translated from Russian, is very readable. Some of it seems a bit sensational or fantastic, but it is riveting nonetheless, as Radzinsky seems a natural story teller. I found Stalin's early years informative, as he was born Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, nicknamed 'Soso' by his mother, in a fairy-tale village in Georgia. His mother pushed him to enter the seminary, but he was never cut out for that life. He later became 'Koba', and this is what he began his criminal activities as. He was shipped to Siberia several times but always managed to escape. He was also an armed robber, holding up the tsar's armed transports. Finally he became the name that we all know him as, Stalin. According to Radzinsky, Stalin had his entire life mapped out, had every move planned well in advance, and let nothing take him by surprise. Part of this may be true, but I find it hard to believe that on June 22, 1941, Stalin let the Germans attack and nearly destroy the Soviet Army and Air Force in a few weeks, losing hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of square miles of Soviet territory, all as part of some grand scheme. When he went in seclusion soon after the invasion, Radzinsky says it was not because he was suffering from shock and depression, as some have asserted. "...Stalin emulated his teacher: Ivan the Terrible's favorite trick was to pretend that he was dying, watch how the hapless boyars behaved, then rise from his sickbed and cruelly punish them, to discourage all the others. Ivan also made a habit of disappearing from the capital, to show the boyars how helpless they were without their tsar. The Boss was behaving as his teacher had." So this was all an elaborate trick to catch unloyal subjects? It seems to me that if this were the case, as the Germans were roaming at will in the destroyed countryside and cities of Western Russian and the Ukraine, that this would have been phenomenally bad timing. Stalin had shown time and again that if he wanted to get rid of somebody, he didn't need much of a pretext. And in this book he gets rid of just about everybody. Whenever someone makes an appearance on the stage, you wonder how long it will be until their show trial and subsequent execution or trip to the gulag. Stalin was definitely paranoid and cold-blooded as a snake, but also diabolically brilliant. Maybe Radzinsky gives him more credit than is due, but maybe he knows something we don't. Whatever the case, the book is still good reading and I recommend it so that you can make your own decision.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrifying Account of Paranoia Personified
Review: I have read many, many books about Adolf Hitler, one of the most despicable people to ever live, but I don't think I ever looked true evil in the eye, so to speak, until I read Radzinsky's account of Stalin's reign(s) of terror. Hitler's crimes, ghastly though they were, seem born from a misguided sense of being slighted and unrecognized for his "genius", whereas Stalin seems to be the textbook example of a psychotic sociopath whose paranoia knows no limits. I am reminded of a scene in Martin Scorcese's "Casino", where the mob bosses are discussing the fate of an associate. They go around the table, talking about what a stand-up guy he is, he would never crack, he's done a lot for us - then its time for the last boss to speak. "The way I figure is - why take chances?", he says, and just like that, the associate is as good as dead. Stalin took this one step further, it seems - to have even known him or any of his associates in any capacity whatsoever, or for that matter, to even be a well-known person in any field, seemed enough to warrant a death sentence. The writing and narrative are strong throughout (I particularly enjoyed the account of the end of Beria, the child-molesting deviant) and Radzinsky keeps a strong moral compass without becoming preachy. If anyone, anywhere is still under the misconception that there was something romantic and glorious about the Russian Revolution, please read this book and disabuse yourself of your delusions. Highest recommendation for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: The anti-Stalinist Stalinist
Review: This is an exquisitely bad book. How bad? Stalin is arguably one of the all time easiest villains to villify, yet the author, allegedly a successful Russian writer, makes pronouncements time and again, concocted out of wholecloth, that don't pass the giggle test. Perhaps the subtitle gives a clue. Secret Archives! The author's style degenerates time and again into breathless, pulsing "National Enquirer" innuendo and hyperbole. Without a shred of corroborating evidence,nor any way to prove or disprove the veracity of the "secret archives", the author bludgeons the reader with utterly bizarre flights of speculation to weave a story that he forces to conform to his own bitter views. Undoubtedly, the most ironic feature of Radzinskii's style is he attributes to Stalin an omniscience and omnipotence, that the most sychophantic Stalinist supporter never imagined. Accordingly, Stalin from the time of his early youth planned to become a ruthless, bloodthirsty dictator, planning intricate ruses to defeat all his opponents that stood in his way. Always able to anticipate exactly what was the correct move. And of course all his opponents were helpless rubes. Except Lenin! Lenin loved Stalin. Lenin created the whole October Revolution just so he could die an early death and leave Stalin in charge. Coveniently he ignores Lenin's closest organizational associate, Sverdlov, who had he not died of the Spanish flu in 1919 was the odds on successor to Lenin. The most preposterous claim, Radzhinskii leaves to the last. Stalin's "Great Dream". Based not even on any of the "tell all" Secret Archives, but a couple of possible statements Stalin alledgedly made and then were conveniently passed on the the author, Stalin dreamt of a world conflagration. How does Radzhinskii know this? In the early 50's at the height of the Cold War, Stalin actually made reference to a "coming war" with the West. Interestingly, this is the time when the US Joint Chief of Staff, Curtis Lemay routinely ordered overflights of the Soviet Union as a provocation hoping to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. What is on record is LeMay's statement that a nuclear conflagration did not concern him as long as the last man standing was American! Without a doubt, Dadzhinskii is confused as to whose "Great Dream" is whose. Ultimately this kind of tripe has been on the market for 50 years or more. If you want an honest, coherent analysis of Stalin and Stalinism, read "The Revolution Betrayed" by Trotsky.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking account about the life of Stalin!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It is the most detailed account about the life of Stalin I have ever read or heard about. I read it in Russian, which helped me to understand a lot of my own history when I lived in the former Soviet Union. I learned the truth about many things which existed in the Soviet and still exist in the newly independent states established after the fall of the Soviet Union. Stalin is the most enigmatic leader of our times. The book talks about his life as a revolutionary, party leader and the "Boss". The author is a little condemning of Stalin in his writing. But it lists a lot of facts from secret archives which is the main reason I liked this book. I learned so many facts about the history of Soviet union and how Stalin basically instilled fear into millions of people with his "purges" simply for the "Great Idea" which was to build a Communist society in the world where USSR would dominate the world. Another interesting fact that I have inferred from the book has to do with the way Stalin built personality cult. The book reveals that again this was all done for a reason. Stalin was very methodical and he desired one thing only Power without restraint. He killed millions of people to keep the state strong and unified to make the people love him so that they would eventually sacrifice their lives to follow their "leader" in whatever he told them. In short, read this book and remember how evil a person can be even though they don't look and act like it. I totally enjoyed the book. I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the history of the fallen Soviet Empire.
Rating:
Summary: Too Personal?
Review: I've never found biographies filled with personal animosity to be all that interesting to read. However, it may be a bit much to ask anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union to put aside his or her feelings for one of the world's greatest mass murderers. Unfortunately, Radzinsky didn't stop after revealing his opinions on Comrade Stalin. I got the distinct impression that he didn't care much for either Sudaplatov or Orlov, figures with a history in Soviet intelligence who are both widely published. I'd read Sudaplatov's book about his years in the NKVD a couple of years ago and found it a great read, especially in the area of emigre organization infiltration. Radzinsky seems to feel that Sudaplatov was a liar and he didn't hesitate to let the readers know. Regardless, this a comprehensive bio which did capture my interest and hold it throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Kill, Kill, Kill!
Review: A well written history of this period that gave me nightmares. Since Lenin and his followers came to power, the Russian people have gone backwards 200 years. I cannot believe the Russian people are so stupid as to put up with this type of destructive government, even though the government says they are. A book worth reading. Why people will idolitize such leaders is beyond me. A sad story of cruelty and downfall of the Russian people. Jimmy
Rating:
Summary: Shocking!
Review: Can you believe that Stalin had a plan to invade Germany before Hitler invaded Soviet Union? Whether you believe it or not, this book deserves your reading. Furthermore, this book is literally beautiful and reads very quickly. The author has lived his entire life in Moscow. So he vividly witnessed everything with his own eyes. And he fortunately got previledge to access Soviet Union's secret archives. What he said in this book is quite different from what we learned in high school. And his version of 20th century history is more persuasive, of course.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, but not without shortcomings
Review: One odd thing about this book is that while the author says he hated Stalin, he never failes to give him the credit he deserves. But he is perhaps to ready to dismiss Molotov, Beria, and other members of the inner circle as simpletons. This book would be especially good for intellectuals/artists. The author being a playwrite as well, he sympathizes ith and dedicates long parts of the book to other artists that Stalin destroyed. The author seems too quick to rush to judgement, perhaps in order to make the book more interesting. Vasily Stalin did not necessarily drink because he knew he was doomed- many rich children are heavy partiers. And even though Stalin saw that he would have to begin WW3 at some point -no one could disagree that eventually he would have- you shouldn't think that he was planning it for 1953 or even 1954.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly, the definitive account of Joseph Stalin.
Review: In addition to being a masterful playwrite, Edvard Radzinsky is also a truly gifted writer. He, like no other biographer of Stalin has done thus far, did not believe all of the myths that surround Joseph Stalin, such as the idea that Stalin was a paranoid schizophrenic, that Stalin was an intellectual bantamweight who paled in comparison to Lenin and Trotsky, and that Leon Trotsky was closer to Lenin than Stalin could ever have been. Radzinsky's biography does justice to perhaps the greatest politician who has ever set foot on Planet Earth. And living through Stalinism, he is more qualified to write a biography of Stalin than any American such as Robert Conquest, Adam Ulam, Robert Tucker, or Richard Lourie could ever be. Radzinsky gerneralizes Stalin's life into three distinct periods, that of Soso(the young and innocent Joseph Djugashvili, who his mother hoped would become a clergyman), Koba(the terrorist, who acted as Lenin's right hand man, doing all of the real work for the Bolshevik party, the type of work that an idealist such as Trotsky could never do), and Stalin(the ruthless politician, who had no problem with annihlating political opponents by any means necessary). The reader comes to understand a fact that would seem self evident to most people, but doesn't realy resonate easily in their minds, that Stalin epitomized the Leninist idea. Many would like to believe that Stalin betrayed the Russian Revolution, by ending the NEP, by annihlating the men who were essential to the success of the October coup(Trotsky, Antonov-Anseeko, Tomsky), and by insitigating class warfare on an unprecedented scale. But I think Radzinsky's book pretty much shatters this notion. Many Trotskyists point to "Lenin's will" as proof that he did not want Stalin to replace him as the maximium leader of the USSR, but as Radzinsky points out, none of the leaders wanted to make Lenin's will public, Lenin wrote a negative sketch of every prospective leader(Lenin wrote Trotsky was arrogant, Stalin was too rude, he say Bukharin was the party's favorite, and the foremost theorist[but in the next line, he says Bukharin doesn't understand dialectics!]). Of course, Radzinsky provides an interesting scenario where Lenin left a will, ordering the demotion of Stalin from the post of General Secretary, in his office, but before his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, or Leon Trotsky could find it, Stalin found, and falsified it. In addition, many Trotskyists believe that Lenin had a more favorable opinion of Leon Trotsky than Joseph Stalin, which as Radzinsky points out, is absolutely absurd. Lenin, like Stalin, hated Trotsky, which is why Lenin encouraged Stalin to promote anti-Trotskyist feelings within the Bolshevik party. Although I feel Trotsky was more intelligent than anyone in the Bolshevik party, I don't really buy the idea that the Bolsheviks would accept a man who feuded with them for roughly fifteen years. After reading this book, I felt even more respect for Leon Trotsky(I already thought he was the preeminient genius of the twentieth century[excluding men of science like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking of course!]), for overlooking the fact Lenin despised him, and keeping up the good fight until one of Stalin's GPU agents murdered him in 1940. And I also came to respect the genius of Joseph Stalin, he politically(and literally) destroyed more intellectual opponents, such as Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev, Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, and of course the old man Lenin himself. A person will not understand the reasons behind the terror that Russians lived under for 30 years until they read this book, you will no longer believe the ridiculous myths that American biographers of Stalin have concocted, Stalin was an incredibly gifted politician(and was almost certainly not psychotic as many have suggested!), why else would he have ruled the first workers ands peasants state for thirty years? This book will make any American appreciate the ruthlessness of Stalin's henchmen, Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov, for preventing medical attention for Stalin after the stroke he suffered in 1953(he likely would have lived if he would have received medical attention immediately), because had Stalin lived for at least another ten years, Americans would likely be living under the banner of Stalinism right now.
Rating:
Summary: A well written novel about a not so well known man
Review: I enjoyed this book because I enjoy Russian History. But I also enjoyed because the author has a way with words and has the ability to write history like fiction. He offered lots of insight into Stalin's life and the extent of his activities. I think those who are interested in Stalin or Russia will enjoy this book. I also believe anyone looking for an interesting read would also enjoy it.
|
