Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

The major new biography that restores a sense of surprise, even wonder, to the way we think about Stalin, the twentieth century, revolution, and indeed the art of history itself. The product of a decade of scrupulous and intrepid research, Stalin contains a host of astonishing revelations. Kotkin gives an intimate new view of the Bolshevik regime's inner geography, bringing to the fore materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret police. He explains how chaos from revolution and civil war became a permanent feature of Soviet administration, even as the regime and Stalin acquired ever more power. The book details Stalin's invention of a fabricated trial and mass executions as early as 1918, the technique he would later impose across the whole country. It places Stalin's momentous decision for collectivization more deeply than ever in the tragic history of imperial Russia. Above all, Kotkin offers a convincing explanation for the Soviet Union's enduring and monstrous power. Volume two will be published in 2016 and volume three in 2018.