A horrifying yet fascinating account of Soviet Dicatator Joseph Stalins years in power from 1922 to 1953, looking in particular at the intrigue, paranoia and machinations of dealing with his equally tyrannical inner circle and running the behometh that was the Soviet Union.
A man of extreme contradictions he was a charming yet ruthless thug on the outside who even had his own doctor arrested and tortured for merely saying he should rest but at times he could be extremely caring, even to strangers. Highly intelligent, he devoured the great works of literature and military strategy. His most prized possession was his huge library of books. History certainly hasn’t seen him as a caring intellectual, he ruled by fear and had carefully cultivated a cult of personality.
In 1933 he instigated the great purge whereby anyone seen as having anti soviet views were either shot or sent to the camps. By the time Stalin died in 1953 at least 15 million people were thought to have been killed.
Regarding foreign policy, he had no respect for the sovereignty of other countries and in 1940 signed a non aggression pact with Hitler which allowed them both to carve up Poland. The Katylin massacre of 22000 Polish military officers was to deprive a potential future Polish military of a large portion of its talent as not to be troublesome in the future. Surprisingly, Stalin was prepared to side with Hitler against the Allied powers, ( which seemed strange considering their idealogical differences were at the extremes of the spectrum )and was surprised and angry when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
A great read and possibly the seminal book on Stalin’s years in power
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