Читать книгу Stalin: History in an Hour - Rupert Colley - Страница 6

Introduction

It is said that no person in history had such a direct impact on the lives of so many as Joseph Stalin had during his lifetime. That impact was, almost without exception, ultimately negative. In Hitler’s Germany, by comparison, if you were not one of the persecuted groups and tacitly supported the regime you were generally safe. In Stalin’s Soviet Union, his Terror knew no limits, it did not discriminate: no one was safe, no institution, no single town or village was immune. Yet, following his death in 1953, Stalin was deeply mourned.

In Russia today, he is still admired by many. A 2008 Russian-wide poll put Stalin as the third most revered figure in its history (amidst suspicion that the vote had been rigged to deprive him of being first). Stalin had ‘received the country with a wooden plough, and left it with a nuclear missile shield’. No one else, it could be argued, could have led the Soviet Union to victory in the Second World War. Of Stalin’s role during the war, Vladimir Putin has said, ‘Whatever anyone may say, victory was achieved.’

So, who was Joseph Stalin and what was his role during the Russian Revolution? How did he come to power, what made him such a destructive tyrant, and how did he impose his will on the Soviet Union for so long?

This, in an hour, is the story of Joseph Stalin.