Stalin, Man of History PDF
Preview Stalin, Man of History
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 - 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
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