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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite Book on the Man of Steel, January 11, 2003
New books are still being written about Stalin, of course, incorporating new and interesting material from the newly opened files of the old Soviet Union. But none that I know of can compare with Hingley's. Significantly, Hingley's most important facts concerning the dictator are still basically correct, while his judgment remains absolutely sterling. By all means read Volkogonov's new book - it's excellent - but there's not much in the newly discovered facts which renders Hingley's opinions and verdict wrong or obsolete. Don't forget, some of the mysteries surrounding Stalin's career, like the question of who really killed Kirov - probably Stalin did - will always remain unsolved because Stalin had all those involved put to death in the nick of time, while what files we may still have are merely those he had not destroyed. With his clerk-like mania for files, and his vampire-like bloodthirstiness, Stalin was very thorough in eliminating ALL evidence, whether in the form of paper.......or flesh and blood. So there's a real limit to how much new we can ever know. I have most of the most important books ever written on Stalin in the English language, and none I know has managed to be so detached and objective on the one hand, and so devastatingly, gut-splittingly funny on the other, as Hingley's. Stalin's life is a deadly serious story if there ever was one, and Hingley manages to be humorous and scholarly at the same time - no mean feat. This book is a gem. I think the three important things to remember about the little (he was 5'3", shorter than Napoleon) Georgian-turned-Russian Bolshevik is that he rose (contrary to his own and everyone's expectations) from nothing to become THE most powerful person who EVER lived in ALL human history, by far; that this murderous TYRANT played a key role (unwillingly at first) in the destruction of HITLER and Nazi Germany; and that he assisted (without desiring it) in the resurgence of CHINA. Of course he also gave a bad, bad name to Marxism......not that anyone else could have done any better!! This is one of the finest books I've ever read and possessed. Finding it was a great stroke of luck.
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