Stalin

New Biography of a Dictator

By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Nora Seligman Favorov - translator

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

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.

Cover image: "Stalin is our banner!" poster, 1948. Collection of the Russian State Library, Moscow. © Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy, Reportage/Archival image.

©2015 Oleg Khlevniuk; Yale University (Translation) (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Informative; Bland Narration

I feel I had a great deal to learn from this book, but at times I struggled paying attention with the very bland narration.

Great informative read!

How do you say you enjoyed a biography on an absolutely evil and vicious dictator?

Insightful look at a dictator

I learned a lot about Stalin's background and behind the scenes decision-making that I didn't know before. At first, it was a little disconcerting how the author switched back and forth between Stalin's early life and his final hours. But once I got used to that, it made sense and added to the enjoyment of the book.

Solid Bio of Stalin

This is a solid bio of Stalin. It covers all the major events in his life and provides the most up to date info about him (ie, after Soviet archives where opened up after 1991).

Pretty good overview of the dictator

I think the book does a pretty good job of covering Stalin and his mindset at various points throughout history. Some parts were kind of glossed over or didn't really cover the full events but overall I enjoyed it.

Fascinating Biography

STALIN is a fascinating, intimate, and well organized biography of one of the most monstrous men to ever rule a major power. Khlevniuk doesn't delve into conspiracy, doesn't gloss over Stalin's crimes, and documents all his rich sources. Likely a book I wouldn't have finished if reading only due to it's level of detail, the narration by Peter Ganim is even, deep, and engaging. Highly recommended for anyone wishing for a peek behind the iron curtain at it's most powerful.

Excellent Overview

I don’t really understand some of the expressions of frustration with this book. It’s well researched, deeply critical without being preachy, and wide ranging, covering all the major beats of Stalin’s time in power with new evidence from recently opened archives. It’s presented in a unique dual-timeline format (clearly explained in the introduction), and is very well performed.

Nuanced and clever

Great book in the genre of biographies of the worst dictators of the 20th century. Interesting thoughts on new Russian biographies of Stalin, trying different ways to rehabilitate him. Also very sympathetic that the author lets the reader know quite a bit about his historical method and about his ideas on writing biographies. Not only Stalin comes to life - he grew his own melons and enjoyed gardening - but also large parts of the political system and quite a bit of social history, fascinating and, of course, often very bleak and grim.

Very informative

This provided me with a lot of information about Stalin that I have never heard before. I highly recommend it to anyone else looking to learn more about Stalin.

Excellent audio

If you want to know the story behind Stalin then this is for you. Informative.