Stalin: 2breaker of Nations

by Robert Conquest

Book Overview

A leading scholar-historian of the U.S.S.R. offers a penetrating look at one of the most enigmatic and terrifying figures of modern times. Distilling a lifetime's study, Conquest provides a powerful, living portrait of Josef Stalin as child and student, revolutionary and Communist theoretician, political animal and paranoid leader. "A brisk, informative synthesis".--The Wall Street Journal.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670840890
• ISBN13: 9780670840892
• Release Date: November 1991
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A comprehensive introduction to Stalin and Stalinism

There have been many biographies written about Josef Stalin. Many recent biographies of Stalin such as "Stalin: The Court of the Red Czar" by Montefiore and "Stalin and his Hangmen: The Tyrant and those who killed for him" by Rayfield focus only on the sexual depravity and crimes of Stalin's followers respectively. A person should only read those biographies only after they have read an introductory biography of Stalin and have therefore come away with an understanding of Stalin as whole. Robert Conquest's "Stalin: Breaker of Nations" provides such a biography with the vital information for one to build a basic stable foundation of the life of this twentieth century tyrant. In the introduction Conquest modestly says, "This book is not a dissection of Stalin's character, but a sketch". It is important to keep this quote in mind as one reads Conquest's book. Many reviewers unfortunately are hasty in criticizing "Stalin: Breaker of Nations" for its lack of length (a mere 330 pages or so). Nonetheless, Conquest's "sketch" proves to be more thorough than many of the "dissections" of Stalin available. Indeed Robert Conquest's work on Stalin has been so extensive that he was chosen to be the main history consultant for the 1992 movie "Stalin", starring Robert Duvall. Robert Conquest writes his book for the common reader who only has a minimal knowledge of Stalin and Stalinism. The book is nonetheless engaging enough for the serious Russian history buff. Anyone who reads "Stalin: Breaker of Nations" will at least come away with the conclusion that Stalin was the most prolific mass murderer in history (yes even more than Hitler). The purpose of the book is ultimately to stimulate enough interest for the reader to do some further research and reading. If one wants further information on Stalin's crimes, one can pick up Robert Conquest's book entitled "The Great Terror: A Reassessment". I strongly recommend "Stalin: Breaker of Nations" to anyone who wishes to have a firm grasp on the essentials of the early Soviet era. I especially wish to highlight Chapter 12 (entitled " War") of the book, which points how the Allies (Roosevelt in particular) were incompetent when it came to standing up to Stalin. If you want some further readings on Russian History, just remember that the best Russian historians start with the letter "R" (Robert Conquest, Richard Pipes, Robert Service, Richard Overy, Robert Leckie, and Robert Payne).

Good, solid biography, but not a classic

... Conquest is a great Sovietologist; his works on collectivization and the terror are classics. This is a little different from his other works, however. This biography is not exhaustive; it's not long, it's not tedious, it's almost as much anecdotal as anything else. Conquest's not-too-subtle attempts at psychological history don't help; but it is quite obvious that he is repulsed by his subject, which anybody should, and would, be when studying the life of one of the worst human monsters that ever walked the face of the earth (as Alex De Jonge said, Stalin made Hitler look like an "inept bungler"). And his revulsion shows through at times. And historians do need to start pointing out, with greater regularity, the fool that Stalin made of Roosevelt, just for the sake of the hundreds of millions of people that had to live under tyrannical Soviet rule because FDR was convinced that Stalin was a great "democrat." Contrary to what one reviewer said, Conquest's "Stalin" is not a difficult book to read at all. If one is looking for a succinct, and imminently fair, biography of Stalin, it would be harder to find a better one than Conquest's. A bit a knowledge of 20th century Soviet history WOULD help the reader; and don't tackle "Harvest of Sorrow" or "The Great Terror" without some knowledge of the times. But with "Stalin", Conquest appears to be aiming more at the general reader and in this he succeeds admirably.

The Monster

Robert Conquest is one of the better known authors on Russian history, specifically on the rule of Stalin and the Communist era. The beginning of this book lists over fifteen books written by Conquest on these subjects, along with books of poetry. There is even a fictional book listed, written in conjunction with Kingsley Amis. Conquest's sources are vast and are included at the back of the book, although a lack of footnotes is bothersome.Conquest starts out his book where it all began, in the country of Georgia at the birth of Stalin. We learn there is some confusion over Stalin's birth date and his birth father. Life is hard for young Iosif; his home life is abusive and the family moves around a bit. Stalin ends up enrolled in a seminary school, where he spends five years studying Russian and reading banned Western books. School discipline is strict, and this discipline and arbitrary rules radicalizes young Stalin. Stalin falls in with Marxist revolutionaries and begins his long march to infamy. Conquest's account of Stalin's revolutionary years is a long litany of arrest and internal exile. Stalin repeatedly escapes from Siberian exile only to be rearrested. Stalin does manage to move up in the ranks, becoming known to both Lenin and Trotsky. When the revolution breaks out, Stalin ends up on the front lines, where he takes part in a few unimportant actions (which are elevated to godlike military exploits once Stalin is in charge). Iosif defies many orders and tends to take matters into his own hands, a trait that others will die for when Stalin assumes control.The rest of the book is the monster. After the death of Lenin, Stalin begins his climb to power by systematically eradicating his fellow Politburo members. Conquest succinctly covers the internal power struggles, the show trials, the war against the peasantry, the treaties and war with Hitler, and the post-war era of lies and murder. Along the way untold millions die of famine, executions, and imprisonment in the gulag system. The most interesting information in these sections is the rise of the personality cult, where Stalin is elevated to the status of a god. Conquest reveals the ridiculousness of this cult. When one of Stalin's speeches is released on records, one side of an album is devoted entirely to applause. A picture in the book, from a celebration of Stalin's 70th birthday, shows Stalin's head in the sky emitting beams of light over the lowly masses, like some bizarre sun. This is sick, sick stuff.Conquest attempts to account for Stalin's behavior by showing that Stalin has no links to humanity (his wives died and he has few friends). Some of his attributes reek of sociopathy: his emotional expressions always seem to be forced, as though he is acting a part and not really feeling anything, and his natural state is one of cruelty. Conquest also shows how Stalin is really, well, nothing. The guy is a vacuum; he is not Russian, and he doesn't really share the traits of a typical

Meet the World's Worst Tyrant

Joseph Stalin was worse than Adolf Hitler. He ruled more territory (one-sixth of the globe, plus satellites), killed more people(estimates start at 20 million) and lasted longer (1925-1953). Yet unlike Hitler, he charmed politicians and intellectuals the world over, enjoyed an enthusiastic world press and inspired apologetic histories. Vladimir Putin, upon becoming the ruler of Russia, raised a toast to Stalin. Stalin's native country, Georgia, is restoring his name and monuments. The one man in the West who labored the longest to document Stalin's crimes is Robert Conquest. Decade after decade he turned out volume after volume on the purges, the labor camps, the mass deportations and other horrors of the Stalin regime, all written in a calm, understated tone in defiance of "progressive" politicians and professors. These volumes, together with the quite different works of first-hand witnesses, such as Victor Kravchenko and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, kept the public record straight and allowed inquiring readers to evaluate the propaganda of the Soviet state and its foreign sympathizers. Curiously, Conquest did not write a biography of Stalin until now. STALIN: BREAKER OF NATIONS is quite unlike his previous works--more relaxed, less academic, not specialized. It truly distills the work of those heavier tomes and enjoys the luxury of not having to argue the case already made. Ideal for the non-specialist, it will inform the specialist as well, since Conquest likes to pick little gems from his treasure-trove of knowledge. One example. A famous propaganda picture of Stalin holding up a smiling little Central Asian girl with black bangs. She hugs his neck as he grasps a big bouquet of flowers that she had just presented him at a state-organized ceremony. Conquest writes: "Stalin as children-lover (he later shot her father)."

Excellent overview of a tyrant by historiographic nemesis

This is not a biography in the strict sense, but a historiographical essay on Stalin, along the lines of Lukacs' more recent "Hitler in History," by a scholar who is probably the greatest living expert on Stalin outside Russia. It is a very readable and insightful precis of the only monster who furnishes serious competition with Hitler for the title of "the most evil man in history" (and who, astonishingly, as the other review here demonstrates, still retains various mindless partisans in sundry nooks and crannies). Robert Conquest has devoted the greater part of a lifetime painstakingly researching and documenting Stalin's crimes in such pioneering works as "The Great Terror" and "Harvest of Sorrow," earning himself the undying gratitude of the nations Stalin victimized as well as the catty resentment of Western leftist self-styled elites. Conquest is thus of course pre-eminently the man for a retrospective such as this. I highly recommend this book.