Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware

I am an avid student of history, especially relating to the First World War and the period of time preceding the war and subsequent to it. I also an avid student of the Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War and period following it. This book was extremely well written and it probably one of the finest biographies I have read about Stalin. That being said, there are two issues that one should consider before purchasing this book.
First- as has been pointed out by other reviewers, the narration is not as good as it could and should be. While I did not mind the narrator's pace and tone, it bothered me greatly and detracted from my enjoyment of the book that he could not correctly pronounce the Russian names of the historical figures in the book. It seems logical to me that if you are going to narrate a book with non-English character names, you need to do a good job with the pronunciations. That was not the case with this narration.
Secondly- the book does a phenomenal job of sketching the time frame in Russian history which Stalin was a part of and the book went into great details about Lenin, Trotsky, Stolypin, Tsar Nicholas II, Kerensky as well as the other Russian historical figures of the period. While this was great for me in that it added greatly to my understanding of Stalin, for the first time reader of a Stalin biography, this can detract from his/her enjoyment of the book because not enough time is spent on Stalin's life. Therefore, if you have never read or listened to a biography of Stalin, I would not listen to this book as the first book on the subject. Instead consider first listening to the Stalin biographies written by Simon Sebag Montfiore (only covers Young Stalin), Robert Conqeust and/or Edward Radzinsky (all three books are available from Audible) and then consider listening to this one. I believe that by following this course of action, the listener will enjoy this book more and learn more about Stalin from it.

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107 people found this helpful

Well-written, comprehensive, incompetently read

This is probably a very great book. However, it is hard to tell from the audiobook, because the narration is just terrible. The speaker reads very, very slowly. I have been a monthly subscriber to Audible for 10 years, and for the first time, I increased the speed to 1.25. Then I increased it again to 1.5. At this speed, it is about normal. In addition, there are many, many sentences where the speaker has failed to place the emphasis correctly in the sentence, making it very difficult to follow the structure. This tends to happen quite often when the speaker encounters a new and complicated Russian last name, which of course happens frequently.

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25 people found this helpful

Stalin's story merged with Russian history

If you could sum up Stalin, Volume I in three words, what would they be?

Incredibly detailed account

Any additional comments?

I cannot recommend Stalin, Vol 1 highly enough. This book often feels more like a history of revolutionary Russia than an account of Stalins life, which is great if you are more interested in public policy vs. an individuals biographic info. The book really heats up when discussing the in-fighting between Stalin and a few of his comrades, such as Trotsky and Kamenev. Ultimately, Vol. 1 is about the fascinating way in which Stalin slowly accrued power over the course of the 20's. My only regret is that Vol. 2 isn't available yet.

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13 people found this helpful

The Prof Unburdens Himself of All He Knows

So there you are, sitting down to hear a biography of Stalin . . . for 39 hours. Listen to an hour every day and it will take you a month and a week to finish it. A half hour every day takes 2 ½ months. What is gained by this marathon? You learn short-term political ploys that didn’t work, month-by-month strategies of Bolsheviks working for influence, variations of communist philosophy among key figures, goings-on during committee meetings in Russia, goings-on in committee meetings in Central Asia, ups and downs of Soviet manufacturing, ups and downs of military strategies by Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and also by White Russian armies . . . an expanse of details that buries everything. There are long periods when Stalin drops out of the narrative completely. The word “abridgement” hovers over this book like an angel with a hatchet, as the poor misshapen thing cries, “Chop me! Chop me!” To be fair to the prof, the book isn’t pretentious—it’s overblown. Volume 1 only goes to the year 1928. Professor Kotkin of Princeton has already penned Volume 2 running another 50 hours. Oh boy, what fun that would be. Is this volume worth listening to? In my opinion, no. It isn’t that the prof hasn’t worthwhile things to say—they are buried in the clutter and when they appear the books gets back on track. There are too many good Stalin bios out there that take a couple weeks to get through. Not unless you are a genuine Russophile focusing on the Revolution, and by that I mean another professor like the author, would I go for this one. I’m an amateur reader of Soviet history and I thought the whole thing quite overdone, for what my opinion is worth. Large sections could have been synopsized with no harm. In fact they should have been. You’ve been warned. Buy the book and get ready to start skipping chapters.

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10 people found this helpful

Exhaustively Detailed

Really this is more of an incredibly detailed account of the beginning of the Soviet Communist Party than simply a biography of Stalin. Too much detail makes for a poor, some what meandering story. Needs better editing to highlight the themes that the author postulates at the end if the book.

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5 people found this helpful

If you fancy having the Soviet archives read aloud...

The only reason I have listened to so much of this is that the narrator is so pleasant. It’s like lovely soothing music.

This is not a biography of Stalin. It is a regurgitation off every minor fact even tangentially related to him, his parents, the Russian revolution, etc. I’m 19 hours in, and I feel like I’m still in the preamble. There’s been very little analysis of Stalin himself, just a brain dump of every minute detail of what was going on in Russia during his life. I appreciate context, but it’s ridiculous.

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5 people found this helpful

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Stephen Kotkin offers a remarkable and comprehensive view of the 1917 Russian Revolution in “Stalin, Volume I”. In historical context, Kotkin profiles the three most important characters of the revolution; e.g. Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky. “Stalin, Volume I” documents the personalities and circumstances of the pre-U.S.S.R.’ economy; i.e. an economy based on the disparity between wealth and poverty, federalization and centralization, political idealism and pragmatism.

Though Stalin wields great enforcement powers, Kotkin infers Trotsky is the intellectual successor to Lenin. Stalin and Trotsky are shown to be at odds on the fundamental direction of the Bolshevik party, the successor party of Russian communism. However, the exigency of getting things done, as opposed to understanding Leninist/Marxist communism, were paramount for consolidating power. Kotkin explains how Stalin became a defender of Leninist doctrine while Trotsky became an antagonist and eventual apostate. Trotsky’s arrogance and Stalin’s manipulation of events doomed Trotsky’s rise to power.

There is much more in Kotkin’s powerful first volume exploration of Stalin and the Russian revolution. Germany’s role in the revolution is a case in point. The writing is crisp and informative. The narration is excellent. After listening to “…Volume I”, one looks forward to Kotkin’s next.

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5 people found this helpful

A fresh and different look at Stalin

Would you consider the audio edition of Stalin, Volume I to be better than the print version?

No. Unfortunately the audio version seems to omit any parenthetical statements in the text and these are valuable. If you're using Immersion Reading this is noticeable.

What three words best describe Paul Hecht’s voice?

Nice pacing and inflection. I rated the performance one star because unfortunately the audio version seems to omit any parenthetical statements in the text and these are valuable. If you're using Immersion Reading this is noticeable.

Any additional comments?

I believe what makes this volume special is how it shows Stalin's connection to the historical context of Russia and Europe -especially in regards to Germany - and does so without becoming meaningless Freudian psycho-history. The author also makes excellent use of primary source quotes that will be very helpful for teachers. Here is a passage that I think demonstrates these points:

"But Kamenev went far beyond separating Stalin from Bukharin. We are against creating a “leader” theory, we’re against building up a “leader.” We are against the idea that the secretariat, by combining both policy and organization in practice, should stand above the main political organ, that is, the politburo. . . . Personally, I suggest that our general secretary is not someone who is capable of unifying the old Bolshevik headquarters around himself. . . . Precisely because I have spoken on numerous occasions with Comrade Stalin, precisely because I have spoken on numerous occasions with a group of Lenin’s comrades, I say here at the Congress: I have come to the conclusion that Comrade Stalin cannot perform the function of unifying the Bolshevik headquarters. Kamenev, as he uttered these remarkable words, was interrupted repeatedly, and the jeering became nearly deafening: “Untrue!” “Nonsense.” “So that’s what they’re up to.” “Stalin! Stalin!” The delegates rise and salute Comrade Stalin. Stormy applause. . . . “Long live Comrade Stalin.” Prolonged stormy applause. Shouts of “Hurrah.” General commotion. The published stenogram continued: “Yevdokimov, from his seat: ‘Long live the Russian Communist Party! Hurrah! Hurrah!’ (The delegates stand and shout ‘Hurrah!’ Noise. Stormy, long-sustained applause) (Yevdokimov, from his seat) ‘Long live the central committee of our party! Hurrah!’ (The delegates shout ‘Hurrah!’) ‘The party above all! Right!’ (Applause and shouts, ‘Hurrah!’)”332 Stalin never had a birthday like this (nor would he again)."

This three volume biography will be a great compliment to Anne Applebaum's works on Stalinism - Gulag, Red Famine, and Iron Curtain
Highly recommended

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4 people found this helpful

Thorough, detailed but dry.

I learned so much about Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, the lead up to and the revolution, but it was presented more dryly than I would have liked. I was riveted by the details but not the presentation. The performance was excellent.

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4 people found this helpful

Tries to be 5 books all at once

I really wanted to like this based on listening to Kotkin on podcasts and was really interested in learning about this monster and what his story is. I was really disappointed that as other reviewers mentioned that there are long periods of time where Stalin disappears from his biography, he's just not mentioned - he goes off on these tangents to give you context but that's when the book tries to be many books in one. Where was the editor? I love historical biographies but it was like listening to a textbook based on the content and the monotone narrator better title would've been A History of Russia from 1878-1928. I'm going to try another biography of Stalin not going to finish this one. Sorry, I wished I had a better report.

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3 people found this helpful