Stalin The Kremlin Mountaineer Icons eBook Paul Johnson
Download As PDF : Stalin The Kremlin Mountaineer Icons eBook Paul Johnson 
Paul Johnson, the most celebrated popular historian of our time, takes a scalpel to Stalin, whom he considers "one of the outstanding monsters of history." Johnson sets forth the essence of Stalin’s life, character, and career. "It has been a hateful task, which has caused me much pain and disgust," he writes with characteristic candor. "But it has been a duty I have performed not without a certain grim satisfaction." Stalin poses a particular challenge to a biographer How does one render such a monster human? While Johnson doesn't flinch from chronicling Stalin's rise to absolute power—the remorseless vendetta against Leon Trotsky, the development of the Gulag, the extermination of millions of peasants—he also shows Stalin playing billiards, listening to his adored Mozart, and annotating Marx’s Capital in the margins. It is, in concise form, the story of Russia in the twentieth century dark and murderous, a stage on which to display humanity's infinite capacity for self-destruction.
Stalin The Kremlin Mountaineer Icons eBook Paul Johnson
This is a brief book – a one-day read, 58 print pages. It contains the estimate essential biographical information one needs.A lot must be sacrificed in such a brief recounting of a man's lifetime. The book does not provide a great deal of historical context. The reader needs to be reasonably familiar with czarist Russia, Nazi Germany, and the first and second world wars, because Johnson simply does not budget pages to provide the background.
The writing is superb, as one expects from Paul Johnson. The book flows easily and logically. It touches on the appropriate major themes: the Bolshevik revolution, consolidation of power under Lenin, forced collectivization and the Holodomor, the purges, Stalin's indecisive dealings with Germany and failure to prepare for the war, the beginning of the Cold War period, and his deteriorating health, increasing paranoia, and death.
I learned from the book that Lenin was the first to use systematic terror and liquidations to consolidate his power. Stalin merely improved on proven methods. Stalin's great gift was his tremendous appetite for work in his methodical execution of schemes to keep his opponents, real or imagined, always off-balance.
The very brevity of this book makes it accessible to people who need to read it, people coming of age in the 21st century. Several historians are drawing parallels between this era and that of a century ago,the last days of the Tzar, World War I, a cataclysmic war which destroyed three empires and significantly rearranged the world power structure. Significantly, the century's three worst despots, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, got their start in these chaotic times. If we are again facing chaos, it is good to know what can possibly ensue.
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Stalin The Kremlin Mountaineer Icons eBook Paul Johnson Reviews
This is a short, but detailed packed book, about Joseph Stalin, who is undoubtably one of the five worst figures of the twentieth century. I especially liked the descriptions of Stalin's character, his rivalry with Trotsky, Hitler's motivation for invading the USSR, and the Doctor Plot. Johnson is one of the best biographer that I've ever read.
Paul Johnson makes a very clear and simple description of the murderous career of Stalin. Those who - as I - were very young and believers of the communist propaganda new, but forgot through time that Lenin, Trotsky, and mostly Stalin were criminals looking for their power only.
Fascinating read. One reason not giving 5 stars - I'm not sure what are the facts behind the story. Yes, it does feel right, but I wouldn't take that as a historical book - more like a novel.
Really interesting reading. I wish it had been more detailed or had more information, but it was enough to encourage me to look further into who talin was. I recommend this book to those who want a brief but fairly comprehensive look at this despot.
This book is a short biography of the instigator of the largest mass murder in history; Stalin of Russia. His road to brutality is the same used by tyrants since time immemorial, tenacity, treachery, torture, brutality, genocide and murder. He was a manipulating psychopath, no remorse, empathy, mortality or shame. He died alone.
It is a short book. Easy to read but quite comprehensive. The book can be of interest to those that know little about this dictador and to those that have read about him but want to refresh their memories. At any rate having a background on Russia before WWI and of Europe is an advantage to understand the actions and reactions covered in the book. I like the approach of describing the contrast of this man that while inclined to the most horrific persecutions and terror at the same time was able to enjoy opera like Prince Igor or Mozart (Concert 23). At the end it will open the appetite to learn more to those introduced for the first time to events leading to the Russian revolution, the various characters involved and WWI and WWII.
Here is a relatively brief yet intriguing biography of the Soviet dictator. The narrative moves along at a brisk pace, leaving the reader horrified by the actions of a man responsible for many millions of deaths. This book is not much of a Soviet history, focusing primarily on the life and character of Stalin
This is a brief book – a one-day read, 58 print pages. It contains the estimate essential biographical information one needs.
A lot must be sacrificed in such a brief recounting of a man's lifetime. The book does not provide a great deal of historical context. The reader needs to be reasonably familiar with czarist Russia, Nazi Germany, and the first and second world wars, because Johnson simply does not budget pages to provide the background.
The writing is superb, as one expects from Paul Johnson. The book flows easily and logically. It touches on the appropriate major themes the Bolshevik revolution, consolidation of power under Lenin, forced collectivization and the Holodomor, the purges, Stalin's indecisive dealings with Germany and failure to prepare for the war, the beginning of the Cold War period, and his deteriorating health, increasing paranoia, and death.
I learned from the book that Lenin was the first to use systematic terror and liquidations to consolidate his power. Stalin merely improved on proven methods. Stalin's great gift was his tremendous appetite for work in his methodical execution of schemes to keep his opponents, real or imagined, always off-balance.
The very brevity of this book makes it accessible to people who need to read it, people coming of age in the 21st century. Several historians are drawing parallels between this era and that of a century ago,the last days of the Tzar, World War I, a cataclysmic war which destroyed three empires and significantly rearranged the world power structure. Significantly, the century's three worst despots, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, got their start in these chaotic times. If we are again facing chaos, it is good to know what can possibly ensue.
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