Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Kotkin, Stephen (1959-....)
Titre(s) : Stalin [Texte imprimé]. [Volume II], Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 / Stephen Kotkin
Lien au titre d'ensemble : Appartient à : Stalin
Publication : New York : Penguin Press, 2017
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (XVII-1154 p.) : illustrations ; 25 cm
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references (p. 1071-1117) and index
"A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our understanding of Stalin and his
world. It has the quality of myth: a poor cobbler's son, a seminarian from an oppressed
outer province of the Russian empire, reinvents himself as a top leader in a band
of revolutionary zealots. When the band seizes control of the country in the aftermath
of total world war, the former seminarian ruthlessly dominates the new regime until
he stands as absolute ruler of a vast and terrible state apparatus, with dominion
over Eurasia. While still building his power base within the Bolshevik dictatorship,
he embarks upon the greatest gamble of his political life and the largest program
of social reengineering ever attempted: the collectivization of all agriculture and
industry across one sixth of the earth. Millions will die, and many more millions
will suffer, but the man will push through to the end against all resistance and doubts.
Where did such power come from? In Stalin, Stephen Kotkin offers a biography that,
at long last, is equal to this shrewd, sociopathic, charismatic dictator in all his
dimensions. The character of Stalin emerges as both astute and blinkered, cynical
and true believing, people oriented and vicious, canny enough to see through people
but prone to nonsensical beliefs. We see a man inclined to despotism who could be
utterly charming, a pragmatic ideologue, a leader who obsessed over slights yet was
a precocious geostrategic thinker--unique among Bolsheviks--and yet who made egregious
strategic blunders. Through it all, we see Stalin's unflinching persistence, his sheer
force of will--perhaps the ultimate key to understanding his indelible mark on history.
Stalin gives an intimate view of the Bolshevik regime's inner geography of power,
bringing to the fore fresh materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret
police. Kotkin rejects the inherited wisdom about Stalin's psychological makeup, showing
us instead how Stalin's near paranoia was fundamentally political, and closely tracks
the Bolshevik revolution's structural paranoia, the predicament of a Communist regime
in an overwhelmingly capitalist world, surrounded and penetrated by enemies. At the
same time, Kotkin demonstrates the impossibility of understanding Stalin's momentous
decisions outside of the context of the tragic history of imperial Russia. The product
of a decade of intrepid research, Stalin is a landmark achievement, a work that recasts
the way we think about the Soviet Union, revolution, dictatorship, the twentieth century,
and indeed the art of history itself"
Sujet(s) : Stalin, Iosif Vissarionovič (1879-1953)
Stalin, Iosif Vissarionovič (1879-1953) -- Psychologie
Politique et gouvernement -- URSS -- 1928-1941
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 978-1-59420-380-0
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb454517978
Notice n° :
FRBNF45451797
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)