Stalin: A Biography
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Overthrowing the conventional image of Stalin as an uneducated political administrator inexplicably transformed into a pathological killer, Robert Service reveals a more complex and fascinating 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.Service 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. Service 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, Service 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. Service's lifetime engagement with Soviet Russia has resulted in the most comprehensive and compelling portrayal of Stalin to date. The Washington Post - Leon Aron Given the subject, then, one hesitates to call Robert Service's biography a labor of love, but the expression seem to fit the years (perhaps decades) this massive book must have taken to produce, filled with the relentless and arduous search for facts. A fellow of the British Academy and St. Antony's College at Oxford and the author of an earlier biography of Lenin, Service has written an unhurried, richly detailed and rigorously researched book, anchored in hundreds of sources -- a vast but cleanly structured text, polished, fluent and brisk.
PrefaceA Note on RenderingsMapsONE: THE REVOLUTIONARY 1. Stalin As We Have Known Him2. The Family Dzhughashvili 3. The Schooling of a Priest4. Poet and Rebel5. Marxist Militant 6. The Party and the Caucasus7. On the Run8. At the Centre of the Party9. Koba and Bolshevism10. Osip of Siberia 11. Return to PetrogradTWO: LEADER FOR THE PARTY 12. The Year 1917 13. October14. People's Commisar15. To the Front 16. The Polish Corridor17. With Lenin18. Nation and Revolution19. Testament 20. The Opportunities of Struggle 21. Joseph and Nadya22. Factionalist Against FactionsTHREE: DESPOT 23. Ending the Nep 24. Terror-Economics25. Ascent to Supremacy26. The Death of Nadya 27. Modernity's Sorcerer28. Fears in Victory29. Ruling the Nations 30. Mind of Terror 31. The Great Terrorist 32. The Cult of Impersonality33. Brutal ReprieveFOUR: WARLORD 34. The World in Sight35. Approaches to War 36. The Devils Sup37. Barbarossa 38. Fighting On 39. Sleeping on the Divan40. To the Death!41. Supreme Commander42. The Big Three43. Last Campaigns44. Victory!FIVE: THE IMPERATOR 45. Delivering the Blow46. The Outbreak of the Cold War47. Subjugating Eastern Europe48. Stalinist Rulership49. Policies and Purges50. Emperor Worship51. Dangerous Liasons52. Vozhd and Intellectual53. Ailing Despot54. Death and Embalming55. After StalinGlossaryNotes Select Bibliography Index
