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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN num: 9780674022584
ISBN number: 0674022580
Label: Belknap Press
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 736
Printing Date: October 31, 2006
Publishing house: Belknap Press
Sale Popularity Level: 264010
Studio: Belknap Press
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Product Description:
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 very first full-scale biography of the Soviet dictator in twenty years.
Service describes in unprecedented detail the very first half of Stalin's life--his childhood in Georgia as the son of a violent, drunkard father and a devoted mother; his education and religious training; and his political activity as a young revolutionary. No mere messenger for Lenin, Stalin was a prominent activist long before the Russian Revolution. Equally compelling is the depiction of Stalin as Soviet leader. Service recasts the image of Stalin as unimpeded despot; his control was not limitless. And his conviction that enemies surrounded him was not entirely unfounded.
Stalin was not just a vengeful dictator but also a man fascinated by ideas and a voracious reader of Marxist doctrine and Russian and Georgian literature as well as an internationalist committed to seeing Russia assume a powerful role on the world stage. In examining the multidimensional legacy of Stalin, Service helps explain why later would-be reformers--such as Khrushchev and Gorbachev--found the Stalinist legacy surprisingly hard to dislodge.
Rather than diminishing the horrors of Stalinism, this is an account all the more disturbing for presenting a believable human portrait. Service's lifetime engagement with Soviet Russia has resulted in the most comprehensive and compelling portrayal of Stalin to date.
(20050221)
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Rated by buyers 
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As I read about the WW II Russian front and Stalin's actions in other books during the past year, I decided that a good biography on Stalin would be a fascinating, interesting, read. After reading that the Washington Post rated Service's book one of the "Best Books of the Year for 2005" and that it was a "Winner in Biography" in the Independent Publishing houses Book Awards for 2005, I thought this would be the one. Instead, I was disappointed to read a book as uninteresting as the history books that I studied in high school and college; books that turned me against history for the subsequent 30 years. It was well-researched and full of details but so are encyclopedias.
I have read quite a few great biographies on people as diverse as Huey Long and Charles Darwin; but, to me, "Stalin, a Biography" was a waste of time.
Rated by buyers 
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Robert Service's Stalin biography provides a detailed glimpse into the life of one of history's great tyrants. In the course Service dispels a number of myths especially whether Stalin murdered his second wife. Another reviewer pointed out the assassination of Kirov and Stalin's destruction of Bukharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev deserves greater attention. I agree. These prominent opponents of Stalin are dispatched by Service with only a few sentences. Service additionally makes broad-brush statements about popular views, resistance or opposition to Stalin which he does not support with facts or anecdotes.
Ultimately, where the book let me down is when the 1930's end and enters the World War 2 and post-world war 2 eras. It seems the author was bored by the subject or just wanted to the book quickly. Service additionally assigns the lion's share of responsibility for the Cold War to Truman and his desire for world-wide United States hegemony.
These last chapters of the book I feel made Service's "Stalin-A biography" seem incomplete.
Rated by buyers -
While I sense as a non-expert that this biography has freed us from some of the stereotypes about Stalin which clouded the views of him in the past, probably exactly because Stalin's hold on power was defined by his ability to operate in the shadows before he emerged on center stage, and even then managed to keep a lot of the world guessing about what exactly his role was. Deniability figured big time in his history. The book nevertheless falls short. The style is somewhat plodding, and there is an implicit assumption that we are experts on Soviet history, and geography, and no aids are on offer in that regard. So in being NOT an expert on Soviet history, I find myself after reading this book that I need to read a history of the Soviet Union and probably of Russia, in order to provide me with the context which this book sorely lacks.
Rated by buyers 
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Service has written a well-researched history of Stalin's life here. It is very thorough and complete and yet it is still quite readable. Unfortunately though, Stalin still remains the cipher that he always has been. No new insight into his lust for power emerges from the six hundred plus pages of text.
Perhaps there is no answer; maybe Stalin was just the uber-sociopathic dictator he appears to be and that he survived and flourished in the dog-eat-dog milieu of revolutionary era Russia because he was very lucky and the best at what he did.
Dictators in the modern era have all to some extent (consciously or not) modeled themselves after Stalin. Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein come to mind. It is said that Saddam had a room in his personal library composed of all the major biographies written about Stalin in Arabic translation, and that he read every one.
I recommend this book though as an excellent work of scholarship and a most comprehensive survey of Joseph Stalin's life and times
Rated by buyers 
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Contrary to what some other reviewers have stated, I do not believe Service goes out of his way to humanize Stalin. However, Service glosses over huge and momentous events, such as the Great Terror. We have all heard of the monstrous acts committed by Stalin but none of the details are given, other than numbers and names. It seems inconceiveable that a 600 plus page book would be superficial and lacking specificity but it does. One gets the feeling Service felt previous biographers had already provided the dirty details and therefore left them out. He also does not tell Stalin's story in any chronological manner. He jumps around endlessly. I cannot recommend this book.
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