On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography.
 
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We start off dealing with your questions from the first two Reading Clubs of the year, before Phil takes us through the famous biography of the Soviet leader. We discuss:


Deutscher's work in historical context


Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the significance of his boyhood education in an Orthodox seminary


How the oppression of the Russian Empire and the promises of Soviet industrialisation shaped young Stalin's lifecourse


Whether, compared to other Bolshevik leaders, Stalin would have succeeded anytime, anywhere


Was Stalin honest in his commitment to the revolution? Was Trotsky right that Stalin was just a cynic?


How did Stalin compare to the other leaders at Yalta, such as the aristocratic Churchill?


How do we compare Stalin to Cromwell or Napoleon?


And what's behind cheeky internet Stalinism today?



Links:


Message of the Non-Jewish Jew, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org


On Orwell: 1984 - The Mysticism of Cruelty, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org


I must start completely alone: Gonzalo Pozo on Isaac Deutscher’s wartime years in London, LRB