Stalin, Volume I

Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

By: Stephen Kotkin

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our understanding of Stalin and his world. It has the quality of myth: A poor cobbler's son, a seminarian from an oppressed outer province of the Russian Empire, reinvents himself as a revolutionary and finds a leadership role within a small group of marginal zealots. When the old world is unexpectedly brought down in a total war, the band seizes control of the country, and the new regime it founds as the vanguard of a new world order is ruthlessly dominated from within by the former seminarian until he stands as the absolute ruler of a vast and terrible state apparatus, with dominion over Eurasia. We think we know the story well. Remarkably, Stephen Kotkin's epic new biography shows us how much we still have to learn.

Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted: the root-and-branch uprooting and collectivization of agriculture and industry across the entire Soviet Union. To stand up to the capitalists he will force into being an industrialized, militarized, collectivized great power is an act of will. Millions will die, and many more will suffer, but Stalin will push through to the end against all resistance and doubts. Where did such power come from? The product of a decade of scrupulous and intrepid research, Stalin contains a host of astonishing revelations. Kotkin gives an intimate first-ever view of the Bolshevik regime’s inner geography, bringing to the fore materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret police.

©2014 Stephen Kotkin (P)2014 Recorded Books

Thorough analysis of Russian history

I was engrossed by the depth of analysis of historical background that formed Stalin and agree with the conclusion of the pivotal role some extraordinary humans have on the development and fate of humanity.

good but not great

i feel this book is for avid historians. i love history but felt at times it was top detailed and found myself losing focus of overall storyline. if there is an abridged version, get that

Wow

What is not taught in the US, is told here. Learn about this amazing history.

Stalin one

I had no idea about Russian history and politics, much less it’s complexity. It’s a very complicated story and kotkin throws a picture of a complicated man and situation with no judgement either way, just the facts mam. This is good history!

The narrator was good but there tend to be very long sentences, some with more than one idea. His reading gets better over the book but he tended to run the sentences on sometimes making you scratch your head. There was a character in the book whose name sounded like O’Johnie Kidzuh. Like a mobster maybe. I don’t know the correct spelling but to my ears I liked hearing it

Great book, highly recommended

Through and detailed historical analysis of Stalin’s Rise

Stalin is a complex, controversial and frequently misunderstood historical figure and while it is impossible to write a completely objective historical analysis of Stalin Kotkin is a good attempt at a neutral analysis of Stalin. Kotkin’s is a bourgeoisie historian with a liberal/capitalist bias but nonetheless does a great job analyzing the animating contradictions of Stalin and the Soviet system he was integral in developing. This book is super detailed and seeks to contextualize the Soviet Union and Stalin both historically and geopolitically. This book is great if you want to know about literally everything that happened leading up to Stalin rise to power. if you were looking for a more casual overview, you will find this book too detailed.

The Prof Unburdens Himself of All He Knows

So there you are, sitting down to hear a biography of Stalin . . . for 39 hours. Listen to an hour every day and it will take you a month and a week to finish it. A half hour every day takes 2 ½ months. What is gained by this marathon? You learn short-term political ploys that didn’t work, month-by-month strategies of Bolsheviks working for influence, variations of communist philosophy among key figures, goings-on during committee meetings in Russia, goings-on in committee meetings in Central Asia, ups and downs of Soviet manufacturing, ups and downs of military strategies by Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and also by White Russian armies . . . an expanse of details that buries everything. There are long periods when Stalin drops out of the narrative completely. The word “abridgement” hovers over this book like an angel with a hatchet, as the poor misshapen thing cries, “Chop me! Chop me!” To be fair to the prof, the book isn’t pretentious—it’s overblown. Volume 1 only goes to the year 1928. Professor Kotkin of Princeton has already penned Volume 2 running another 50 hours. Oh boy, what fun that would be. Is this volume worth listening to? In my opinion, no. It isn’t that the prof hasn’t worthwhile things to say—they are buried in the clutter and when they appear the books gets back on track. There are too many good Stalin bios out there that take a couple weeks to get through. Not unless you are a genuine Russophile focusing on the Revolution, and by that I mean another professor like the author, would I go for this one. I’m an amateur reader of Soviet history and I thought the whole thing quite overdone, for what my opinion is worth. Large sections could have been synopsized with no harm. In fact they should have been. You’ve been warned. Buy the book and get ready to start skipping chapters.

A must read for students of Stalin and his age

Monumental. Objective,well researched,well written and well narrated. Mr. Kotkin may be a poor lecturer but his mastery of the pen and archives is astounding! I just finished Vol 1 and the ending reminded me of the closing scene of The Godfather 1 when the door closed. The tranformation from Soso to The Hammer is complete. As soon as I finish this review I'm gonna begin Vol 2. This is the best bio I have read in years and hands down the best Stalin bio I have ever read.

Comprehensive... and its only volume 1

I found it immensely interesting and in depth. I certainly appreciated the occaisonal sidebar for backgrounds sake, re: the revolution or quick backgrounds on Lenin and Trotsky.
Felt easy to absorb the names aurally vs actually reading them. Smooth, and easy to listen to voice. Definitely a long listen. Ready for volume 2

Very good!

insightful and well written. tons of details not found elsewhere. i loved the court of the red tsar by s. montefiore, but this book offers different angle and more info

Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware

I am an avid student of history, especially relating to the First World War and the period of time preceding the war and subsequent to it. I also an avid student of the Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War and period following it. This book was extremely well written and it probably one of the finest biographies I have read about Stalin. That being said, there are two issues that one should consider before purchasing this book.
First- as has been pointed out by other reviewers, the narration is not as good as it could and should be. While I did not mind the narrator's pace and tone, it bothered me greatly and detracted from my enjoyment of the book that he could not correctly pronounce the Russian names of the historical figures in the book. It seems logical to me that if you are going to narrate a book with non-English character names, you need to do a good job with the pronunciations. That was not the case with this narration.
Secondly- the book does a phenomenal job of sketching the time frame in Russian history which Stalin was a part of and the book went into great details about Lenin, Trotsky, Stolypin, Tsar Nicholas II, Kerensky as well as the other Russian historical figures of the period. While this was great for me in that it added greatly to my understanding of Stalin, for the first time reader of a Stalin biography, this can detract from his/her enjoyment of the book because not enough time is spent on Stalin's life. Therefore, if you have never read or listened to a biography of Stalin, I would not listen to this book as the first book on the subject. Instead consider first listening to the Stalin biographies written by Simon Sebag Montfiore (only covers Young Stalin), Robert Conqeust and/or Edward Radzinsky (all three books are available from Audible) and then consider listening to this one. I believe that by following this course of action, the listener will enjoy this book more and learn more about Stalin from it.