“A masterly account . . . Kotkin has given us a textured gripping examination of the
foundational years of the man most responsible for the construction of the Soviet state in all
its brutal glory.” — The New York Times Book Review “This is a very serious biography that .
. . is likely to well stand the test of time.” — The New York Review of Books “Superb . . .
Only Mr. Kotkin’s book approaches the highest standard of scholarly rigor and general-interest
readability.” — Wall Street Journal A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our
understanding of Stalin and his world The product of a decade of intrepid research Stalin is
a landmark achievement. Stephen Kotkin offers a biography that at long last is equal to this
shrewd sociopathic charismatic dictator in all his dimensions. We see a man inclined to
despotism who could be utterly charming a pragmatic ideologue a leader who obsessed over
slights yet was a precocious geostrategic thinker—unique among Bolsheviks—and yet who made
egregious strategic blunders. Through it all we see Stalin’s unflinching persistence his
sheer force of will—perhaps the ultimate key to understanding his indelible mark on history.
Drawing on Kotkin’s exhaustive study of Soviet archival materials as well as vast scholarly
literature Stalin recasts the way we think about the Soviet Union revolution dictatorship
the twentieth century and indeed the art of history itself.
