"Monumental." --The New York Times Book Review
Pulitzer Prize-finalist Stephen Kotkin has written the definitive
biography of Joseph Stalin, from collectivization and the Great Terror
to the conflict with Hitler's Germany that is the signal event of modern
world history
In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over
the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of
the world's largest peasant economy into "socialist modernity,"
otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost.
What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the
country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and
running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of
millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen
Kotkin's Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 is the story of how a
political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa.
The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated
levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting
mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party even from those
Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. But Stalin did
not flinch. By 1934, when the Soviet Union had stabilized and socialism
had been implanted in the countryside, praise for his stunning
anti-capitalist success came from all quarters. Stalin, however, never
forgave and never forgot, with shocking consequences as he strove to
consolidate the state with a brand new elite of young strivers like
himself. Stalin's obsessions drove him to execute nearly a million
people, including the military leadership, diplomatic and intelligence
officials, and innumerable leading lights in culture.
While Stalin revived a great power, building a formidable industrialized
military, the Soviet Union was effectively alone and surrounded by
perceived enemies. The quest for security would bring Soviet Communism
to a shocking and improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain
would not unfold as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the
fates of their respective dictatorships, drew ever closer to collision,
as the world hung in the balance.
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 is a history of the world during
the build-up to its most fateful hour, from the vantage point of
Stalin's seat of power. It is a landmark achievement in the annals of
historical scholarship, and in the art of biography.
