Blog-alonga-Buglet

Stalin and Tsung - so, when starts the revolution?

Which biog of Stalin are you reading? There's some really excellent ones, written both before the fall of the USSR and after.

Stalin and Tsung - so, when starts the revolution?

provisionally pencilled in for may 25th, so long as I can get the day off.

Which biog of Stalin are you reading? There's some really excellent ones, written both before the fall of the USSR and after.

It's 'In the court of the Red Tsar', concentrates mainly on what he was like as a person, seems pretty good so far.

It's 'In the court of the Red Tsar', concentrates mainly on what he was like as a person, seems pretty good so far.

I've read that one - a lot of it concentrates on personalities, and despite its references I'm not sure how much of that is conjecture (I think it would be hard to write on that basis without personal opinions on those people having an effect on the end result).

I have an ageing copy of 'Stalin' by Isaac Deutscher on my shelves, which I felt was far better/informative. The thing is, it was written before the fall of the USSR, and i've often wondered if there's a updated version, taking advantage of access to their archives to double-check any assumptions and to fill in any blanks. If there is an updated version of this, I would think it would be excellent.

(In a similar vein, I've wondered if there's an updated version of the classic 'The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich', again taking advantage of the now-open USSR archives. I've never actually bothered to look tho.)

And to discover that much of Stalin's actions are the result of Russian culture rather than just simply 'pure evil' being his and his cronies motivation, I suggest you read 'Putin's Russia' by the now-murdered Anna Politkovskaya