Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy

Rating:
Summary: A biography more suited to historians than thegeneral reader
Review: Gen. Volkogonov is not a professional historian, and certainly not a great writer. His work his well researched and meticolous, but is fails to either capture the general reader or to impress the reader looking for a clear analysis of causes and consequences. The book is very long, the style of prose quite boring and at times repetitive. The author very often has a moralistic tone ("How could Stalin posssibly be so cruel? Look how corrupt his cronies were...") that bothers those who would like a more detached approach. I guess one has to remember that once he believed in Communism and cannot have helped being shocked by what he found in the state's archives (where he ventured with the original purpose of writing an orthodox biography of the Great Leader); this might explain his being upset at Stalin, but does not make the book more appealing. In the end, Gen. Volgokonov's main merit is exactly this: to have been able to access, thanks to his position in the Red Army, the USSR's impenetrable archives, and to have revealed to the world a deluge of details and documents. Some of them are immensely controversial in their potential consequences (eg the statements made by Stalin before the German attack that war was inevitable; or Zukov's plan for a preventive strike against Germany). Indeed, this book deservedly appears in most bibliographies on the USSR and the Russo-German war, and has provided the academic community with valuable insights for further analysis on Stalin and Stalinism. But it is probably more suited for an historian than for a general reader.

Rating:
Summary: Too subjective but interesting
Review: I agree with a_reader_999 (review elsewhere on this page) that Mr. Volkogonov allows his judgement to be clouded by his own Leninist views, blames everything bad on Stalin, and like a lot of Marxists, still lives in denial. For someone having spent his whole life on something, accepting defeat can be a very giant step indeed, so one tends to be sympathetic, but it does not make for quality objective history writing. But minus the diatribes and the nitpicking, this work provides a lot of details for the history buff, and is also quite interesting reading.

Rating:
Summary: the best book on Stalin, a timepiece, frame it
Review: I bought this book first when I was in Russia. I bought it in the original Russian. I had already read Volkogonovs study of Lenin and Trotsky and his book 'Autopsy of the Soviet empire'. THis, though, is the seminal work of a man who passed far to quickly from our view. He had yearned to detail the crimes of Stalin, the secrets also. This grand book details many obscure facts not found in other books. DIsjointed writing,as anyone fmailiar with VOlkogonov knows, this book nevertheless is very readable. Many critisize this saying it was not written by a true historian, its not organized, it smacks of a freshmens writing, in that it does not develop a topic thouroughly before going on to something else. It jumps around. THis is all true. Mr. Volkogonov was not a writer by trade. He was a military bureacrat who yearned to breeth free and compiled this information, independent of the west, for years before publishing his account after the fall of the Soviet empire. If we view it that way this book is unique, it is a testimony of a man who witnessed the evils of the Soviet system, who knew personally what Stalin had done and wanted to expose it. He could weight the good and the bad. This book is invaluable as history. It is by a Russian writing about the failings of his own country, in its formative period nonetheless. A must have and a must read. A landmark in Soviet studies.

Rating:
Summary: the best book on Stalin, a timepiece, frame it
Review: I bought this book first when I was in Russia. I bought it in the original Russian. I had already read Volkogonovs study of Lenin and Trotsky and his book 'Autopsy of the Soviet empire'. THis, though, is the seminal work of a man who passed far to quickly from our view. He had yearned to detail the crimes of Stalin, the secrets also. This grand book details many obscure facts not found in other books. DIsjointed writing,as anyone fmailiar with VOlkogonov knows, this book nevertheless is very readable. Many critisize this saying it was not written by a true historian, its not organized, it smacks of a freshmens writing, in that it does not develop a topic thouroughly before going on to something else. It jumps around. THis is all true. Mr. Volkogonov was not a writer by trade. He was a military bureacrat who yearned to breeth free and compiled this information, independent of the west, for years before publishing his account after the fall of the Soviet empire. If we view it that way this book is unique, it is a testimony of a man who witnessed the evils of the Soviet system, who knew personally what Stalin had done and wanted to expose it. He could weight the good and the bad. This book is invaluable as history. It is by a Russian writing about the failings of his own country, in its formative period nonetheless. A must have and a must read. A landmark in Soviet studies.

Rating:
Summary: A four star Stalin
Review: I have a great respect for general Volkogonov, and I like his books very much, but unfortunately this one has one bad point: purges. General Volkogonov (as well as many other historicians), claims that Stalin purged his army from the best strategists in history like marshalls Tukatchevskii, Bluecher, or komandarms Yakir, Putna. The bad thing is, is that everybody seems to forget that these people didn't have too good minds, and were simply very bad strategists. For example, everybody thinks that Tukatchevskii was brilliant 'cause he developed "polemostrategy", or "dakavilks", or the "archpassive defensive system", and many other great "tactics". If you look at his works, you'll see that his tactical ideas are: "You have to fight with the enemy." "You have to destroy the enemy." "You have to attack the enemy." And the endless texts like this. His "reconstruction" plans, was simply to build from 50 to 100 thousand tanks in 1928, before industrialization! If proposals like that are not a sabotage then what? He also warned Stalin about the upcoming invasion, but about... french, american and british invasion. Marshall Bluecher, was for example an alcoholic (for Russian standarts!). Komandarm Szmidt, warned Stalin that he will cut off his ears. People of komandarm Dybienko, attacked Stalin on the revolution anniversary etc. etc. If you analyse it you'll see that Stalin was fightning with the hooligans, and idiots. And the last thing: the number of Stalin's victims is not 36.761, but 10.686. The rest of the strategists, were sacked. Also note that until May 1940 over 12.000 officers were brought into army. And for the end in this 10.686 you also have lawyers, sportsmen, political commisairss (for 26 shot komandarms of the II category, 15 were political commisairs) and on top of all chekists (like komandarm of the I category Mikhail Frinovski, the vice-chief of the NKVD).

Rating:
Summary: A truly *awesome* historical biography ...
Review: Reading "Triumph and Tragedy" is, quite simply, a life-altering
experience. Volkogonov was a loyal member of the Red Army and
Communist Party when he gained access to the whole of the KGB's
archives. As he researched the past, his level of disenchantment grew
until the very core of his world-view was torn asunder. This book is
written unevenly, as Volkogonov was still struggling to absorb the
historical record as he wrote. Nevertheless, the occasional
awkwardness serves to drive home the horror of this period. The
experience is as if the reader can feel the author there with them,
reeling from it all. While the book certainly contains much
interesting historical information, particularly with respect to
Stalin's purges of the Red Army and its affects on WWII, it is also
much, much more. When I read it, the phrase "the horror, the horror"
from Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" kept coming into my mind.


Rating:
Summary: Readable historically significant
Review: There have been a number of biographies written in the west about Stalin the Soviet dictator. This is the first Russian book that is not simply a piece of hackwork. The writer has had full access to all Soviet archives. These archives had been kept from all other writers.

The writer was a red army general and the general expectations from the west were that his work would be of poor quality. This book was written with the approval of the Soviet General Staff before the complete collapse of communism. Volkogonov had been a prolific author but his previous works to use the words of the New York Review of Books "none of his previous works had hinted at independence, rigor or critical thought."

It was thus a surprise to find that the book departed form the party line and showed independence from the ideas of the old Soviet State. During the writing of the book the author examined thousands of files in which Stalin either ordered the murder of Soviet citizens or agreed to them. The writer's father was in fact one of Stalin's victims and he found out the details of what had happened during his research. After finishing the book he joined Yelstin's government as indicative of his break with the past.

Stalin was for his early life a fringe figure of the Bolshevik movement. He rose to prominence as he organized a large number of armed robberies that proved important to the parties' finances. Around the time of the revolution he became a trusted associate of Lenin. After Lenin's death Stalin entrenched himself in the rather unglamorous job of running the bureaucratic apparatus of the Communist Party. The other contenders for leadership took more glamorous positions. Stalin basically was able to stack the organs of power with his men and he seized power murdering his other rivals.

Initially Stalin was seen as an economic moderate. He had supported the continuation of a private agricultural sector. By the late twenties and early thirties he decided on a policy of force industrialization. To pay for the imports that were necessary he had to export huge amounts of agricultural products. To do this he introduced collectivization of the farming sector. This was bitterly resented by farmers especially in the Ukraine and Stalin murdered around 3 million farmers by starving them to death.

The forced industrialization of Russia proceeded at a breakneck pace with growth rates of around 5% a year. All of the growth however was going back into expansion of secondary industry. This meant that his regime was unpopular and only kept in power because of its security apparatus. In 1934 Stalin's likely successor Kirov was murdered. This set of a number of purges or the random killing of communist party officials. It would seem that the reason for this was to forestall opposition in a desperately unpopular regime. Just before he war some 40,000 army officers were liquidated in further purges. Again these were clearly aimed at keeping the army from opposing the regime.

In 1941 Russia was invaded and the first few months were a disaster with some 3 million Soviet troops being captured and the loss of about half of European Russia. Despite this colossal reversal Russia was able to recover and defeat Germany and to the enslave Eastern Europe for forty years.

Russians in considering their history prior to Volkogonov have accepted Stalin's crimes. They have however suggested that he has an important place in history as the industrialization in the thirties turned Russia from the weak power which had succumbed to Germany in the first world war to the superpower which went on to dominate the world for forty years. Secondly Stalin's apologists have suggested that his rock solid tyranny was able to keep together Russia in a time of crisis and in the end not only saved itself but to destroy a tyranny far worse.

Volkogonov in fact attacks this myth and suggests that the purges and Stalin's actions in 1941 lay at the heart of the military defeat.

The book contains no new surprises such as revealing if it was Stalin who killed Kirov. It also does not allow us to quantify Stalin's crimes in any more detail. It is however a readable biography of one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. The tragedy of the last century is of course that its three most significant figures have been criminals.

Rating:
Summary: a dry, informative, giant dull read
Review: This book is well researched, filled with facts, and is complete. It is excellently written, and complete; right down to the last detail about Stalin and those who surrounded him. The above are the good points about this long, large 600 page plus book. The bad side is that the narrative is repetitive, boring, dull and seemingly endless. There are hundreds upon hundreds of complicated Russian names that no one can pronounce that leave you confused as to just who is on first base. This work reminds me of the Russian version of War and Peace. It was so long and dull, filled with so many Russian names and characters that you forgot half of them before you got to page 200. I had to read this mammouth work in stages with large helpings of much lighter reading in between to keep up my interest. I eventually finished the book, and was glad that it was over. I would not ever buy another Russian biography again. It is well worth the asking price, and if you have the time and patience, is worth the time once you finally finish it. Not one of my favorites by any stretch of the imagination. My e-mail address is [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, in a strange way
Review: This is a terrible book. It is the best terrible book I have ever read.

The writing--ugh! The man has no sense of how to connect his various narratives together, how to build a sense of continuity, how to make us feel like we are really inside the events he is describing. He leaps back and forth in time at will, without bothering to explain why. He spends paragraphs or pages on picayune details, then leaps over giant topics with barely a word. And his politics--the man was an unrepentant Leninist! Time and again, he makes it clear that, if only the saintly Lenin had lived, all would have been wonderful in the worker's paradise. Only Stalin was a bloodthirsty monster--everyone else was a glorious revolutionary.

But I certainly enjoyed reading the book. The man knew a lot of the people who worked with Stalin. He saw how the Stalinist system worked from the inside. He has a lot of interesting things to say.

That makes up for the glaring flaws in this book. I just can't help but wonder what kind of book this could have been if Volkogonov had been a real writer, and if he had employed a real editor. And if, perhaps, his fog of naivety had been lifted and he could have dispelled the myth from his mind that the USSR was a good thing turned bad by a single man.

In short, don't expect a history or a biography. Expect a long, rambling monologue from a befuddled old man, who tends to confuse his stories, repeat himself, get lost in his train of thought...and occasionally drop out some bombshell anecdotes that make it all worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: The beginning
Review: This is the best biography of Stalin there is, in my opinion. Volkogonov simply had the access to the kind of materials no one else had. This book takes full advantage of them. It correctly depicts Stalin as a great actor who sold his image to the masses, the image of benevolent and infallible ruler. In contrast to his fascist counterparts, Hitler and Mussolini, Stalin did not have a good speaking ability, and often read his boring speeches monotonously. But his self-assured and reassuring monotony came to have a hypnotic effect. His smile and almost goofy mustache and eyebrows covered the soul of a despot.

Stalin was a single-minded individual: for him, power came before everything else. A Georgian nationalist who called himself Koba in his youth and resented Russian rule over his people, he rose to become Stalin (man of steel) who ruled over the new Russian Empire called the Soviet Union. Volkogonov gives us the most factual biography yet of the man who slaughtered millions in the name of the workers' paradise and future generations; the man who feared and obsessed over Adolph Hitler and who ultimately defeated him; the man whose cruelty and destruction are a warning to all future generations not to lend a sympathetic ear to promises of future earthly utopias in exchange for absolute power and elimination of civil rights.