Books about Stalin make it possible to understand one of the most significant and controversial figures in Russian history of the 20th century: the party’s Secretary General, Commander-in-Chief, Generalissimo, who actually led the country for more than thirty years. Some consider him a brilliant military leader and experienced manager who managed to put the country on its feet after the devastating Civil War. Others claim that it was a bloody dictator, all of whose achievements are based on millions of human victims. Who was Stalin really? The books that are described in this article will allow at least a little understanding of this difficult issue.
1. "Stalin and the repression of the 1920-1930s"
Many books about Stalin are devoted to repression. One of the most popular is the work of the military historian Arsen Martirosyan "Stalin and the repression of the 1920s and 1930s."
In it, the author talks in detail about the conversation that took place between Generalissimo and the Swedish ambassador Kollontai on the eve of the Soviet-Finnish war. In it, Stalin predicted that many of his affairs would be perverted, his name would be vilified, and many atrocities would be attributed to his identities.
In this work, Martirosyan sets himself the task of dispelling the two hundred most popular anti-Stalinist myths about the leader, as well as exposing a number of documentary fakes, claiming that in reality everything was not so.
2. "The revenge of Stalin. Return the Russian lands!"
Igor Pykhalov in his book "The Rematch of Stalin. Return the Russian lands!" argues that rather than squandering the achievements of the past, it is better to carefully preserve what has been collected and suffered by previous generations.
The author notes that after the Great October Revolution and the subsequent foreign intervention, Russia lost a number of important and strategically significant territories. On the outskirts of the great empire, states such as Finland, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia began to emerge. According to Pykhalov, the dominant ideology in them was militant Russophobia.
The writer sees Stalin as a zealous landlord, who over the years in power managed to recover most of the lost land. This is the subject of Igor Pykhalov’s new historical bestseller, “Stalin’s Rematch. Return the Russian Lands!”.
3. "Russian Tsar Joseph Stalin. Myths and Truth"
Among the books about Stalin, it is necessary to highlight the work of Alexei Kofanov, which is called "Russian Tsar Joseph Stalin. Myths and Truth." According to some researchers, this is one of the most impartial books written about this controversial and controversial figure. Moreover, according to Kofanov himself, he builds all his arguments and conclusions on irrefutable facts, which is extremely important when we try to analyze the Stalin era.
This book about Stalin contains a large number of sources, so if you wish, all the information and data contained in it can be easily checked. The author takes on an extremely complex and controversial topic, but at the same time he manages to write his work in an understandable and accessible language. In a relaxed manner, he tries to answer the main questions about the personality of Joseph Stalin.
The annotation states that, having read it, you will be able to find out exactly why many hate the Soviet leader so much, whether he was really a maniac, secret service agent, hijacker and paranoid, why the liberal intelligentsia prefers Trotsky to Stalin, and what actually happened in Russia at the beginning of the XX century.
4. Analysis of the action
In the ranking, which is given in this article, it is necessary to mention the book by Semen Ekshtut "Comrade Stalin, can you hear us?"
In it, the author makes an attempt to answer the difficult question of why Stalin in the people's memory, despite all the repressions and persecutions, remained as a good hero. In the book "Comrade Stalin, can you hear us?" The action is trying to explain why the broad masses perceive him exclusively as one of the most powerful and fair rulers.
The author of the book "Comrade Stalin, can you hear us?" He tried not only to assess the damage caused by the repressions, but also to analyze the effectiveness of personnel decisions in the highest echelons of power. This has been done repeatedly before him. Eckstut decided to find out how all people, readers of his book, should change in order to prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future.
5. "Young Stalin"
In 2007, the biographical novel of the young historian and publicist Simon Montefiore "Young Stalin" was translated into Russian.
By this time, the work was already well-known in the world, it was awarded a number of prizes and prestigious literary awards. For example, she received the Bruno Kreisky Prize and the prize from the Los Angeles Times as the best biographical work. In the near future, it is expected to film, the rights purchased by Miramax Films.
Among the main advantages of this novel, it should be noted that it was written by one of the largest English experts on the history of Russia. Montefiore manages to draw a portrait of an unknown majority of Stalin's readers, dispelling the many myths that existed about the Soviet Secretary General. It is interesting that these myths were created both by modern sources, and so were cultivated by the very hero of the novel.
As a result, the writer turned out to be a real bestseller, an exciting biography that will not leave anyone indifferent. On its pages we will meet Stalin-lover, terrorist, hunter, poet and meteorologist. We learn about such aspects of his personality that we had not even suspected of before.
At the same time, the author tries to answer questions whether Stalin has always been such a ruthless dictator, why this particular person managed to become one of the most influential people in world history of the 20th century.
An interesting view of Stalin and his contemporaries in those days when he had not yet inspired fear in everyone around him. When working on a book, Montefiore plunged into archival documents, restored the life of the Soviet leader in tsarist Russia in detail, trying to scrupulously record every action on the way to power.
6. "Stalin: biography of the leader"
Arsen Martirosyan’s book “Stalin: Biography of a Leader” is well known from the series “200 Myths about Stalin”. The author in his work recognizes the significance of the hero figure of his book. Today it is already universally recognized both in Russia and abroad. At the same time, he claims that many atrocities were attributed to him in the past half century, after the course of the Soviet Communist Party to debunk the cult of personality. Many, according to the author, tried to attribute to him a false biography, which has little to do with reality.
Military historian Arsen Martirosyan is trying to debunk the most popular myths and expose a series of supposedly true documents.
The author is trying to figure out whether Stalin was really an agent of the tsarist secret police, who had not completed the seminar, did not play any role in the October Revolution and the Civil War, hid Lenin’s testament from the party and the public, ignored the principles of democracy, did not tolerate criticism, did not trust anyone, suffered from manic suspicion , personally created his own cult, compared himself to Napoleon, initiated repressions as ethnic cleansing and so on.
He refutes these and other statements, citing facts, documents and his own conclusions.
7. "Stalin. Life and death"
In the book "Stalin. Life and Death" Edward Radzinsky tries to show the injustice, which, in his opinion, is observed in most studies devoted to this politician. In them, the political qualities of the figure always overshadow the human. Surprisingly, the same trend is observed in the memoirs of his relatives, friends and even relatives.
The popularizer of history, Radzinsky wants to explain this injustice. He is trying to figure out what Stalin felt and thought, being at the top of the power pyramid created by himself. The writer analyzes the so-called Stalin phenomenon, exploring the personal qualities of a historical character, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this major political figure.
Interestingly, Radzinsky's work is divided into three parts. Their names coincide with the nicknames that the generalissimo had. This is Soso, Koba and the most famous is Stalin.
8. The book of Volkogonov
Of course, one of the most famous biographies of the Soviet leader is a study called "Stalin" by Dmitry Volkogonov. Many consider it to be the main work dedicated to the famous Generalissimo; in the world it has been distributed in millions of copies. It has been translated into more than ten foreign languages.
The biography of the most famous dictator of the 20th century is written from anti-Stalinist positions. At the same time, the author is trying to maintain historical objectivity.
It is noteworthy that Volkogonov himself did not go down to the personal accounts with the Secretary General, being the son of "enemies of the people." The historian’s father was shot during the years of repression, and his mother died in exile. As a true historian, he managed to maintain detachment and impartiality, being as objective as possible. At the same time, he wrote not a political campaign that would reflect his personal views on what was happening, but a deep encyclopedic study of the Leader’s phenomenon, a book that is interesting to read after many years.
9. "The first defeat of Stalin"
In 2011, the study of Yuri Zhukov "The First Stalin's defeat" was published. It tells how at the very beginning the career of the Soviet leader was taking shape.
Zhukov talks about how Stalin tried to maintain the unity of the country during the Civil War and the October Revolution, opposing its collapse, the separation of individual national republics. And also about the people who opposed him in this, about the factors that made it possible to win.
The book uses rare archival documents, many of which became public only in recent years.
10. "Joseph Stalin. The last mystery"
Another book dedicated to the Soviet dictator was written by Edward Radzinsky. "Joseph Stalin. The Last Riddle" is an in-depth study of the leader’s activities on the eve of and during World War II.
This is an attempt to explain many of the actions and actions of the leader, still not received a reasonable explanation. This novel is part of a cycle called Apocalypse from Koba.
11. "Our commander Stalin"
It is interesting these days to read books written by contemporaries of the leader. These include the biographical work "Our Commander Stalin" by Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, who led the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
Here we can take a look at the personality of the leader from his associates, which is especially interesting.