Stalin

Robert Service is a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Russian History at the University of Oxford.

Overthrowing the conventional image of Stalin as an uneducated political administrator inexplicably transformed into a pathological killer, Robert Service reveals a more complex and fascinating story behind this notorious twentieth-century figure. Drawing on unexplored archives and personal testimonies gathered from across Russia and Georgia, this is the first full-scale biography of the Soviet dictator in twenty years.

Preface A Note on Renderings Maps ONE: THE REVOLUTIONARY 1. Stalin As We Have Known Him 2. The Family Dzhughashvili 3. The Schooling of a Priest 4. Poet and Rebel 5. Marxist Militant 6. The Party and the Caucasus 7. On the Run 8. At the Centre of the Party 9. Koba and Bolshevism 10. Osip of Siberia 11. Return to Petrograd TWO: LEADER FOR THE PARTY 12. The Year 1917 13. October 14. People's Commisar 15. To the Front 16. The Polish Corridor 17. With Lenin 18. Nation and Revolution 19. Testament 20. The Opportunities of Struggle 21. Joseph and Nadya 22. Factionalist Against Factions THREE: DESPOT 23. Ending the Nep 24. Terror-Economics 25. Ascent to Supremacy 26. The Death of Nadya 27. Modernity's Sorcerer 28. Fears in Victory 29. Ruling the Nations 30. Mind of Terror 31. The Great Terrorist 32. The Cult of Impersonality 33. Brutal Reprieve FOUR: WARLORD 34. The World in Sight 35. Approaches to War 36. The Devils Sup 37. Barbarossa 38. Fighting On 39. Sleeping on the Divan 40. To the Death! 41. Supreme Commander 42. The Big Three 43. Last Campaigns 44. Victory! FIVE: THE IMPERATOR 45. Delivering the Blow 46. The Outbreak of the Cold War 47. Subjugating Eastern Europe 48. Stalinist Rulership 49. Policies and Purges 50. Emperor Worship 51. Dangerous Liasons 52. Vozhd and Intellectual 53. Ailing Despot 54. Death and Embalming 55. After Stalin Glossary Notes Select Bibliography Index