Stalin - New Biography of a Dictator (Hardcover)

The most authoritative and engrossing biography of the notorious dictator ever written Josef Stalin exercised supreme power in the Soviet Union from 1929 until his death in 1953. During that quarter-century, by Oleg Khlevniuk's estimate, he caused the imprisonment and execution of no fewer than a million Soviet citizens per year. Millions more were victims of famine directly resulting from Stalin's policies. What drove him toward such ruthlessness? This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history. In brief, revealing prologues to each chapter, Khlevniuk takes his reader into Stalin's favorite dacha, where the innermost circle of Soviet leadership gathered as their vozhd lay dying. Chronological chapters then illuminate major themes: Stalin's childhood, his involvement in the Revolution and the early Bolshevik government under Lenin, his assumption of undivided power and mandate for industrialization and collectivization, the Terror, World War II, and the postwar period. At the book's conclusion, the author presents a cogent warning against nostalgia for the Stalinist era.

General

Imprint:	Yale University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	May 2015
Authors:	Oleg V. Khlevniuk (Senior Researcher at the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow)
Translators:	Nora Seligman Favorov
Dimensions:	235 x 156 x 28mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	408
ISBN-13:	978-0-300-16388-9
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Historical, political & military Books > Humanities > History > European history > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Political leaders & leadership Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > History > European history > General Books > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > Biography > Historical, political & military
LSN:	0-300-16388-6
Barcode:	9780300163889

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