Stalin, Man of History

570 Pages·1979·59.594 MB·English

by  Ian Grey

Other books by Ian Grey
PETER GREAT
TBE
CATHERINE GREAT
'IDE
IVAN TERRIBLE
THE
IVAN III UNIFICA'l'ION RussTA
AND THE OF
Ro2vIANOvs: Rise and Fall of Dynasty
THE TI1e the
TnE HISTORY OF Russ1A
THE FrnsT FnnY YEA.RS: Soviet Russia i917-1967
BonIS GonuNov: The Tragic Tsar
STALIN

--·---------------
STALIN
ofH istory
Man
IAN GREY
1979
Doubleday 6 Company, Inc.
Garden City, New York
ISBN:
0-385-14333-8
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-20030
COPYRIGHT @ 1979 llY IAN GREY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRIN1'ED IN THE UNlTED STATES OF Al.IBRICA
FlkSl' EDI'I'ION
-
To the memory of Laris
sa

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
'The main sources on which I have drawn are listed in the bibliog­
raphy or referred to in the notes to each chapter. I would like,
however, to pay tribute to Leonard Schapiro's The Communist
Party of the Soviet Union and to Colonel Albert Seaton's The
Russo-G€rman War i941-45 and Stalin Warlord, which I
as
found especially valuable.
I place on record my appreciation for the help and
facilities
which I have had and without which I could not have written this
book in the London Library (my thanks in particular to Miss
Joan Bailey) and the British Library. To Mrs. Miriam Alman for
helpful comments and to Mrs. Jakki Becker for her speedy and ac­
curate typing, I express my gratitude.
My indebtedness to my wife for her patience and constant sup­
port increases with each book that I write and I acknowledge it
with love and gratitude.
London
April 28, i978

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PREFACE
Twenty-five years have passed since Stalin died. The incessant
clamor of eulogy that accompanied his name in Soviet Russia bas
been stilled. In the West mention of him provokes moral indigna­
tion and denigration. He is known as a malevolent despot, "the
greatest criminal in history." Like an ikon standing before its oil
lamp and so begrimed by the fumes that the subject is barely visi­
ble, he has faded to a dark shadow, which can be identified only
with difficulty.
Stalin was, however, a ruler in the tradition of Ivan the Dread
and Peter the Great. He great in ability, in courage, and in
was
pmpose. He gave positive leadership and transformed a vast, back­
agrarian nation into a modem industrial power. He was also
ward
ruthless and inhuman in his methods. Like many outstanding
men, he was a complex of diverse qualities.
There has been no lack of books and reports, some sensational,
some scholarly, and many inspired by malice and hatred, which
have dwelt on the dark side of his rule. They have tended to ob­
scure and distort, setting up barriers to the understanding of the
man and hiS importance. There has been a paucity of studies of
his positive achievements.
The distorted portrayal of Stalin has been in part the work of
Trotsky and those who sympathize with him. Other factors have
contributed also, such as the idolatry of Lenin, the bitterness of
emigre social democrats, and the moral judgments of Western
historians. Khrushchev's speech to the Twentieth Party Congress
in i956 and the partial rejection of Stalin by the party and the So­
viet government, as well as the confused de-Stalinization policy,
have added to the obfuscation.
Trotsky, a man of great ability and zeal, but also possessed by
extreme arrogance, was convinced that he had been defeated and
humbled as a result of the machinations of Stalin. could never
He