Joseph stalin mini biography of christopher

This new biography of Stalin offers an accessible and up-to-date representation of one of the twentieth-century’s defining figures, as well as new insights, analysis and illumination to deepen our understanding of his actions, intentions and the nature of the power that he wielded.

Christopher Read examines Stalin’s contribution to and impact on Russian and world events in the first half of the twentieth century. The biography brings together the avalanche of sources and scholarship which followed the collapse of the system Stalin constructed, including the often neglected writings and speeches of Stalin himself. In addition to a detailed narrative and analysis of Stalin’s rule, chapters also cover his early years and humble beginnings in a small town at a remote outpost of the Russian Empire, his role in the revolution, his relationships with Lenin, Trotsky and others in the 1920s, and his rise to become one of the most powerful figures in human history.

•

Read, Ed., The Stalin Years - A Reader

Authors

• Jerry Hopkins East Texas Baptist University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33043/TH.31.1.50-52

Abstract

Christopher Read contributes a very good study of the years Joseph Stalin dominated the Soviet Union. In a short, yet exceptionally written first chapter, Read deals with the "main currents of interpretation of Stalin and the Stalin years." Read summarizes his strategy and the focus of his book in his "Preface," emphasizing what he is going to do and presents his two-fold aim-he leads "a self-contained journey through the Stalin years, focusing in detail on the main events" and, second, he samples new historiographical views framträdande from Russian Archives.

A very good glossary of terms provides satisfactory definitions and explanations. Read also includes a chronology generally outlining Stalin's life and work by period, including the formative per

•

Early life of Joseph Stalin

The early life of Joseph Stalin covers the period from Stalin's birth, on 18 December 1878 (6 December according to the Old Style), until the October Revolution on 7 November 1917 (25 October). Born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia, to a cobbler and a house cleaner, he grew up in the city and attended school there before moving to Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi) to join the Tiflis Seminary. While a student at the seminary he embraced Marxism and became an avid follower of Vladimir Lenin, and left the seminary to become a revolutionary. After being marked by Russian secret police for his activities, he became a full-time revolutionary and was involved in a various criminal activities as a robber, gangster and arsonist.^[1] He became one of the Bolsheviks' chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda, raising money through bank robberies, and kidnappings and extortion. Stalin was captured and