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Stalin: A Biography

Author: Robert Service
By Pan
Average Customer Rating:

List Price: ~~£9.99~~
Our Price: £6.10

What other people say about this product

A Balanced View, 2010-08-01
There are a lot of reviews on Amazon.com which say things I would want to put in a review. So why add another?

One writer says the book leaves him with the question as to whether Marxism as a creed has any merit, and wishes Service had addressed this, while acknowledging it was outside his scope.

This is a big question. Another reviewer complains that Stalin's split with Trotsky is not adequately covered. Equally Service's book on Lenin doesn't really say much about Stalin or Trotsky, and I get the feeling you have to read all three to get Service's full picture of the Russian Revolution. Perhaps the Trotsky book which I haven't yet read gives clues to his views on Marxism.

Another reviewer complains that this book can't be read without a prior knowledge of Russia. I'm sure he's right and would recommend Pipes' general history of Russia and perhaps Marx's 1844 manuscripts and Lenin's `State and Revolution'.

However what Service does do is provide a balanced political biography. At all times Service is trying to arrive at a fair picture of what Stalin did politically and how this sat with the situation he was in.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book for me was his relationship with Lenin. He clearly adored Lenin. Stalin had some exceptional personal qualities, including enormous self-discipline, great capacity for hard work, and quite a sophisticated and flexible intellect. He was able to appreciate the work of the revolutionary (in a non-political sense) thinker Bogdanov whose subtleties escaped Lenin. For about a decade he managed with Lenin's support the difficult task of marrying the needs and demands of the different nationalities with the Soviet Union with the requirements of Bolshevik ideology and the needs of the state, a task which no-one else had patience with.

Lenin appreciated these qualities and also Stalin's utter ruthlessness, although he got quite worried about Stalin towards the end of his life because he was `careless', perhaps callous, personally as well as politically.

About 1929 Stalin changed tack radically, and abandoning the flirtation with capitalism which was the New Economic Plan he and Lenin had nurtured, reverted to a more orthodox Leninism involving the collectivisation of agriculture and the subjection of the nationalities to the Soviet cause. At this time also he began the ruthless suppression of opposition, culminating in the frenzy of the Great Terror of 1937-8.

Service describes all this without offering speculation about exactly why these changes occurred.

Presumably Stalin's decisions resulted from perceptions of his about political necessity, including perhaps his perception of the collapse of world capitalism or the potential threat from Hitler.

At all times Stalin needed to keep a clean ship, free from spies and internal opposition, and his usual approach was `If in doubt, get rid of people.' At the same time his relentless attention to detail preserved his control.

The later parts of the book are a little dry - try Montefiore's excellent books on Stalin, especially the `Court of the Red Tsar' if you want to feel the blood rain down on you.

However Service retains excellent balance and perspective through, which is what is needed with this emotive subject.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in Stalin, 2010-06-11
I have only finished reading the first section - there are 4 left to go. But based on what I have read, I am very glad I have bought this book. The first section goes over Stalins early years and talks about different ideas which have been thrown out about his childhood, as there is not much known. But Service does not needlessly drag out his childhood like some biographies tend to do. Instead he is concise, giving a glimpse into the sort of life Stalin lead in his early years. I look forward to the rest of the book.

I have read other biographies by Service and he always writes well and fully. If you are really interested in the subject then you definately feel you get your monies worth with Service.

Interested in Stalin,Cold War, WW2, biographies generally? Then I would say go for this for sure.

I ordered this for someone to bring to me (as I am not currently in the UK) and he read it in the 10 days before I saw him - that says a lot for a book this size.

No title, 2010-05-08
This is the worst biography I have had the misfortune to read.

Nothing beyond superficial analysis and synthesis, totally barren of intellectual integrity and academic legitimacy. It is nothing more than a petty-minded character assassination derived from half-baked ideas, wild speculation and rank-amateur psychology.

One would expect more from an academic/Oxford prof. Maybe it's just another manifestation of the dumbing down of English education.

I'm a conservative, by the way.

Stalin has a skinful, 2010-08-04
I read this book from front to back (well,of course.I'm not going to read it back to front - although some people do) over two weeks (I like to savor the flavor) and I must say it was a great read. What struck me about the book was Service's colorful use of language. Stalin and his henchmen would seem to have been in a constant state of inebriation i.e. drunk as skunks. Well, I suppose you had to be drunk or, at least, it helped (though not in Stalin's case) - to numb your senses and block out the knowledge of the horrors, depravity and obscenity of what Stalin was doing to Russia. Robert Service uses expressions like 'well oiled' and 'having a skinful'.This adds (for me) to the book's appeal. One feels Service would have made a great teacher of history, if the way he writes about it, is anything to go by. Robert says of Stalin: "He could charm a toad out of a tree." Excellent! Of Stalin's decrepit and withered appearance in later years Robert writes:" Stalin looked like a gargoyle that had fallen off a medieval church." Again excellent! The book is peppered with such wonderful insights. Robert throws doubt on whether Stalin's reaction to the death of his wife Nadya had as much effect on Stalin's future behavior as has been generally thought (by other historians). Another thing that struck me about Robert's book was his writing on how insecure Stalin felt - even right up to his death. One feels Stalin thought he could be 'taken out' at any moment. Stalin seems to have never felt safe from his enemies and maybe he was right to feel so. This paranoia of Stalin's was most likely a contributing factor to his maniacal, ruthless and vengeful murderousness.In the final analysis Stalin was nothing more than a homicidal maniac and serial killer with a pen in one hand and a telephone in the other. One dreads to think how many more millions would have perished if Stalin had had access to a computer, a mouse and an iPhone. Robert writes that Stalin himself may have been murdered - poisoned - perhaps by Beria with the help of Stalin's bodyguard. It is a distinct possibility.

A great read. Informative, insightful and entertaining (as even history can and should sometimes be).

Ivan the Terrible

Stalin - Robert Service, 2010-01-19
I had heard a lot about Stalin and the fact that he was a mass murder who killed even more than Hitler, so bought this book with great eagerness to learn more.

Robert Service research is exemplary and you really get a feel for the character of Stain and his psychotic / paranoid nature. My only criticism would be that maybe the book is a little too political and not enough is made of the mass murders and genocides that Stalin ordered and these are treated almost as an aside to the political progress and government of Stalin.

Overall this is a very good book and if you like your politics and want to learn how the Soviet Union was created then this is an excellent book.

I would definitely recommend