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  • Stalin

  • The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives
  • Written by: Edvard Radzinsky
  • Narrated by: David McCallum
  • Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

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Stalin

Written by: Edvard Radzinsky
Narrated by: David McCallum
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Publisher's Summary

Granted privileged access to Russia's secret archives, Edvard Radzinsky has broken down the iron curtain of myth, secrecy, and lies that has surrounded Stalin's life and career, painting a picture of the Soviet strongman as more calculating, ruthless, and blood-crazed than has ever been imagined; a man for whom power was all, terror a useful weapon, and deceit a constant companion.

Radzinsky uncovers the startling truth about this most enigmatic of historical figures. Only now, in the post-Soviet era, can what was suppressed be told: Stalin's long-denied involvement with terrorism as a young revolutionary; the real story of how he mangled his left arm; the crucial importance of his role during the October Revolution; his often hostile relationship with Lenin; the details of his organization of terror, culminating in the infamous show trials of the 1930s; his secret dealings with Hitler, and how they backfired; and the horrifying plans he had to send the Soviet Union's Jews to concentration camps, tantamount to a potential second Holocaust. Radzinsky also takes an intimate look at Stalin's private life, and his turbulent relationship with his wife Nadezhda, recreating the circumstances that led to her suicide. Finally, Radzinsky discovers one of Stalin's elite bodyguards, who breaks 40 years of silence to give the strongest evidence yet of the conspiracy behind Stalin's death.

The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.

©1996 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc. (P)1996 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

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This is explanation why Socialism is evil

It shows that Hitler's national socialism and Stalin's "international" socialism are the same. Socialism starts as a good idea but always ends up in mass graves and concentration camps.

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Lacks coherence and content. A terrible book.

This is jumbled cacophony of disjointed episodes in the life of Stalin. The reader will listen for “explosive new documents” in vain. If Shostakovich (sp.?) wrote prose instead of “music”, this is what it would sound like. If one reads this without a comprehensive background on Stain all one will gather is that Stalin was a bad person who may also have been a communist. Full stop. Save your credit. Don’t waste your time.

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  • m&m
  • 2020-11-26

Patterns to Recognize

The patterns are what are to be remembered from these events. Failure to recognize the similarities and to call them out in a free and democratic society leads to the fear and distrust that paves the way for such accepted oppression.

It's not to be ignored that Communism resulted in more deaths that all of WW2 casualties combined, combatants and civilians.

We have a short collective memory and we then to forget when we get comfortable.

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