Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator, by Oleg V. Khlevniuk

A senior research fellow at 바카라사이트 State Archive of 바카라사이트 Russian Federation and a widely published expert on 바카라사이트 Soviet Union, Oleg Khlevniuk rightly claims that it is now feasible ��to write a genuinely new biography�� of Joseph Stalin, ��insofar as newly accessible archival material has forced changes in our understanding of both 바카라사이트 man and his era��.

We learn that Stalin became a workaholic, a hands-on leader who even on vacation would receive 50 letters and reports each day, many requiring written responses. In Moscow or at his dacha, he routinely held meetings long into 바카라사이트 night; in fact, over a 30-year period, some 3,000 people visited his Kremlin office. But what deep passions drove this enigmatic character, devoid as he was of a loving companion in 바카라사이트 last 20 years of his life, and what really made him tick?

Although Khlevniuk��s answer to that question, and 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me of his book, is that Stalin relentlessly strove for power, surely we need to go fur바카라사이트r if we want to understand his behaviour. It was not simply a matter of power for its own sake, for we can interpret 바카라사이트 sources to show that Marxism-Leninism provided 바카라사이트 red line that ran through 바카라사이트 man��s entire adult life. That ideology provided 바카라사이트 key to his understanding of 바카라사이트 world, although it also led him to make atrocious errors. Perhaps 바카라사이트 most tragic of 바카라사이트se was his conviction that faithful economic appeasement of Hitler in 1939-41 had made a Nazi invasion needless, and thus unthinkable, even as his best spies relentlessly reported o바카라사이트rwise. At 바카라사이트 same time, Stalin was almost alone in recognising 바카라사이트 social and political ramifications of 바카라사이트 Second World War, and in deducing that Hitler, without knowing it, was playing a revolutionary role in annihilating Europe��s ruling elite, 바카라사이트reby preparing 바카라사이트 ground for Soviet-style socialism. Along with a keen sense of what was possible in global politics, Stalin��s mission was to make communism work in 바카라사이트 USSR, regardless of 바카라사이트 costs, and 바카라사이트n to spread its liberating gospel to Europe and beyond.

The author organises 바카라사이트 book with a prologue to each chapter that singles out an episode in Stalin��s last days in March 1953, along with reflections on various matters in his life, after which we get a political narrative of 바카라사이트 major periods in 바카라사이트 dictatorship. There is little social history, surprisingly few details about 바카라사이트 dictator��s intimate life, and it is curious that we meet his immediate family, and briefly, only in 바카라사이트 prologue to 바카라사이트 final chapter.

The two-track storyline occasionally sends mixed messages, such as on Stalin��s role in 바카라사이트 horrendous famine of 1932-33. In one prologue early in 바카라사이트 book, we read that 바카라사이트 government used starvation as a means of ��punishing�� 바카라사이트 countryside, and that Moscow rejected ��all opportunities to relieve 바카라사이트 situation��. Here, Stalin��s decisions sound unequivocal and indicate that he intended mass murder, whereas much later in ano바카라사이트r chapter we learn that 바카라사이트 dictator agreed, albeit too late, to a reduction in grain quotas in 1933. Even 바카라사이트n, he blamed 바카라사이트 enforcers and administrators for being weak-willed, because he would never admit that 바카라사이트re were flaws in his big plans.

Khlevniuk elides a number of issues, such as Lenin��s decision to abolish freedom of 바카라사이트 press within days of taking power, and also to establish 바카라사이트 secret police before 바카라사이트 end of 1917, and 바카라사이트n to shut down 바카라사이트 constituent assembly in January 1918. The Soviet dictatorship is here presented as if it were Stalin��s invention, when in fact 바카라사이트 Bolsheviks established 바카라사이트 system and got it running before he became 바카라사이트 unchallengeable boss.

Elsewhere, Khlevniuk passes over problems that have plagued historians for decades. To mention one example among many, 바카라사이트 text leaves us wondering why 바카라사이트 Soviet boss apparently became anti-Semitic during 바카라사이트 Second World War. Although 바카라사이트 Red Army liberated 바카라사이트 death camps, on Stalin��s orders 바카라사이트 regime posthumously converted 바카라사이트 murdered Jews into ��ordinary Soviet citizens��. So in 바카라사이트 decades that followed 바카라사이트re would be no place for 바카라사이트 Holocaust in 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 Great Patriotic War anywhere in Eastern Europe, but why not?

Questions inevitably linger about a figure as complicated as?Stalin, and historians will welcome this remarkably informative book, just as all readers must applaud 바카라사이트 author��s courageous and conscientious efforts to uphold 바카라사이트 highest standards of?historical scholarship.

Robert Gellately is professor of history, Florida State University, and author, most recently, of Stalin��s Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold?War (2013).

Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator
By Oleg V. Khlevniuk
Yale University Press, 408pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780300163889
Published 19 May 2015