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Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941, by Stephen Kotkin
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Review
Winner of the Mark Lynton History PrizeA Sunday Times (London) History Book of the Year 2017One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Biographies of 2017“Monumental . . . Drawing on an astonishing array of sources, Kotkin paints a richly variegated portrait, delving into Stalin’s peculiar personality even while situating him within the trajectories of Soviet history and totalitarianism more generally. . . Kotkin teases out his subject’s contradictions, revealing Stalin as both ideologue and opportunist, man of iron will and creature of the Soviet system, creep who apparently drove his wife to suicide and leader who inspired his people. . . will surely stand for years to come as a seminal account of some of the most devastating events of the 20th century.” —The New York Times Book Review“The book makes it mark through its theoretical sophistication, relentless argumentation, and sheer Stakhoanovite immensity. . . Kotkin also attempts to answer the chief philosophical question about Stalin: whether the monstrous regime he created was a function of his personality or of something inherent in Bolshevism.” — Keith Gessen, New Yorker “A masterpiece, surely one of the most remarkable books on 20th-century history to have been published in many years. It is not only the depth of research that takes the breath away; it is the scale and range of Kotkin’s framing of his subject and the acuity of his observations.” –Mark Mazower, The Guardian“[T]he second volume of what will surely rank as one of the greatest historical achievements of our age . . . few other biographies have so succeeded in showing how one man shaped his times, and how his times shaped him. This is a book not just about Stalin but about the entire spectrum of world affairs in the 1930s, its focus constantly shifting from the tiniest personal details to the grand sweep of international strategy. Kotkin’s project is the War and Peace of history: a book you fear you will never finish, but just cannot put down. The ending is perfectly judged. It is the night of Saturday, June 21, 1941. In his office, Stalin paces nervously, waiting for news. And on the border, Hitler’s war machine prepares to strike.” —The Times (London)“There have been many other biographies of Stalin, but none matches the range of information and analysis that animates Mr. Kotkin’s ambitious project. Waiting for Hitler is biography and history on a grand scale – equal in scope to the enormity of the events it describes.” —Joshua Rubenstein, The Wall Street Journal“This has never been better nor more plausibly told than by Kotkin in this brilliant, compelling, propulsively written, magnificent tour de force . . . I eagerly await volume three.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard “It is the most gripping of reads, packed with epoch-shaking events and human tragedy. This volume sweeps through the collectivisation of agriculture and the mass famine of the early 1930s, the Great Terror of 1936-38, the outbreak of the second world war, the disastrous winter war against Finland, and the macabre diplomatic dance between Stalin and Hitler ahead of the Nazi invasion of June 1941. This is, as close as it is possible to imagine, the definitive biography of Stalin.” —Financial Times“A triumph, necessary reading for anyone hoping to make sense of Stalin and the Soviet Union.” —New Criterion“Kotkin, a Princeton history professor, has performed prodigies of research, wading through masses of previously inaccessible Soviet-era documents to produce what is surely the definitive portrait.” —American Conservative“It is unlikely we will soon have a biography the equal of Kotkin’s… We turn to a biography of this heft for the larger history, and for detailed analyses of that history, and Kotkin doesn’t disappoint… Thrilling and engrossing.” —Jewish Currents“Against all odds considering their grim topics, these Stalin volumes from Kotkin, in addition to being definitive, are the kind of infectiously entertaining that only comes from perfect match of topic and storyteller.” - Open Letters Monthly“A magisterial second entry in this multivolume biography. He integrates a massive body of newly available documents with extant scholarship, comprehensively detailing the development of the U.S.S.R. and the nature of Stalin’s rule. . . Kotkin’s account is a hefty challenge, but an eminently worthwhile one.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review“A well-written, finely detailed installment in a definitive biography—sure to receive many prize nominations this year.” – Kirkus, starred review
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About the Author
Stephen Kotkin is the John P. Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He directs Princeton's Institute for International and Regional Studies and co-directs its Program in the History and Practice of Diplomacy. His books include Uncivil Society, Armageddon Averted, and Magnetic Mountain. Kotkin was a Pultizer Prize finalist for Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928.
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Product details
Paperback: 1184 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (November 20, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143132156
ISBN-13: 978-0143132158
Product Dimensions:
6.1 x 2.5 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
77 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#100,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Volume II of Stephen Kotkin’s STALIN: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 picks up where the scholar left off, cataloging the 20th century’s most successful and ruthless dictator’s consolidation of power. In urban areas this meant building factories and marginalizing enemies. In rural areas it included forced collectivization—undoing the land distribution of hundreds of millions of acres seized by peasants since the revolution. Most importantly it meant enforcing one man's interpretation of Communist doctrine upon 160 million people in a country that spanned 13 time zones. Dragging them into the 20th century and the first rank of world power by any means was no mean feat. Some would call it madness or impossible. Kotkin characterizes it as a triumph of will.The author expands upon Volume I’s paradoxes: there simply was never enough power to be had. As power is accumulated, so too are enemies. That requires more power, which requires more purging. It’s an unending cycle of exile, arrest or murder. Compounded by the sheer magnitude of his task (bringing Russia to the Modern Era in a decade rather than a generation) and the size of the country, the table is set for disasters of epic proportions. As his personality spirals into sociopathic paranoia, Stalin produces catastrophe after catastrophe that includes a body count that is truly mind-boggling. He also achieved some spectacular successes and the biography is richer for the fact that Kotkin is always prepared to give the devil his due. Waiting for Hitler is a triumph of scholarship over polemics.The book begins with the exile of Trotsky, and the “neutering†of Bukharin (an erstwhile ally), and exile of Rykov and Tomsky from the Politburo. Stalin is by 1929 already decisively moving against his enemies—rightists who support Lenin’s New Economic Plan or others simply charismatic and therefore a threat to the cult of Stalin (unofficially launched during his 50th birthday commemoration.) Stalin is a master at both pity and self-promotion—constantly bewailing the “attacks†of others while cutting them off at the knees. By 1930 Stalin has honed bloody skills he will use effectively for more than 20 additional years in power.Increasingly in the public imagination and Stalin’s mind, he and the state become one. An affront to Communism is an affront to Stalin and vice-versa. Therefore, the existence of Kulaks, well-to-do peasants who benefited from the breakup of aristocratic estates are deemed a “rightist†deviation—an obstacle to collectivization and must be eliminated. Indeed, any and all who resist are enemies of the state and its leader and must be forced to submit or eliminated. To the shock (and awe) of all, particularly those who supported Lenin’s more tolerant New Economic Plan, there simply was no middle ground.Forced collectivization, dislocation from the land, the ensuing peasant revolt (they slaughtered their livestock rather than let the state confiscate it) and bad harvests combined to pose a serious threat to Stalin’s power. Indeed, 1932 is one of the few times Stalin vacillates and backs down on policy, making course “adjustmentsâ€. Still, the whispers that Stalin had to go continued. To counter the whispers, purges are ratcheted up along with everyone's paranoia. The political corpses literally pileup by the tens and hundreds of thousands.These numbers are nothing in comparison to the starvation count in rural Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakh provinces. Seven to ten million estimated dead. Families cannibalizing family members. Orphans murdered to be eaten. All because Stalin refused to admit error and abandon the collective. Worse still he would not import grain to relieve the suffering because opponents of his regime would use it to depict communism as a failure. The author states unequivocally this was a disaster of one man's making and largely avoidable had Stalin even a smidgeon of compassion. While Kotkin’s detailed accounts make for great history it is both exhausting and at times numbing. Waiting for Hitler depressingly summons to mind Hannah Arendt’s remark about the banality of evil.By 1934-1935 the economy is on track in a remarkable comeback. It is around this time he begins to experience the adulation of the masses which Kotkin makes clear while exaggerated by the Party was also based on a fundamental truth--the Russian people loved Papa. In the cat bird's seat, Stalin strikes, remaking the Party entirely in his image, often using the assassination of Sergei Kirov as an excuse to cleanse. The 30s show trials section was most interesting and perhaps the most psychologically revealing. Murder and purging become spectacle, modern-day cousin to a Roman circus where the outcome of the show is a foregone conclusion. Witnessing the narcissistic preening, and his opponents robotic recanting (in the hopes of at least saving their families from the same fate) is fascinating in the way a train wreck is riveting. The carnage is horrific but you can’t look away. The sense of fear and intimidation is palpable.The third section of Waiting For Hitler covers the geopolitical scene of the 1930s with the particular focus on Germany and Hitler. Again, Kotkin's analysis is astute and multi-dimensional. Russia will be able to survive the Nazi onslaught to come in large part because of Stalin's remarkable modernization. However murdering your experienced generals and colonels in fits of political pique only a year or two before invasion does nothing to improve your odds of survival. Also, considering everyone knew it was just a matter of time, Russia was caught surprisingly flat-footed when the moment comes. Perhaps blitzkrieg doesn't translate to Russian.Like its predecessor, volume II is a scholarly work. It is accessible to the amateur historian but at 900 plus pages and with thousands and thousands of footnotes it is not any person's idea of a light read. It is a commitment. Its cast of characters is like a Cecil B. DeMille production and not always easy to keep straight. Also, the detail and documentation, necessary to scholarship is also occasionally a drag—more than once I found myself thinking “O god, another plenum; another purge; another footnote.†Stalin’s life provides new meaning to the cliché “been there; done that.†That said, Waiting For Hitler will be one of those essential tomes of 20th century politics and history. I am very, very glad I read it, and a little bit glad it’s over.
When I purchased this biography of Stalin, I was unaware that it was the second of a three volume work. Titled “Waiting for Hitlerâ€, it covers the time from Stalin’s ascendancy to power after the death of Lenin, up to the launch of the German offensive against the USSR, code named Barbarossa.I have to say, this is not an easy, or enjoyable read. It very meticulously sets out the seemingly endless diplomatic and bureaucratic machinations carried out between 1929 and 1941. The first part details Stalin’s solidification of absolute power following the death of Lenin. It covers the dekulakization and collectivization of agriculture and the attendant famines that resulted. It then devolves into the terror that followed, in which Stalin murdered or exiled virtually every competent Soviet government official and military officer, in an orgy of paranoia fed violence. Page after page of Russian names soon blend together, making it impossible for me to follow. This middle part of the book is very slow going.Finally, with the arrival of Hitler on the international scene, my interest level rose. While I was certainly well versed in the basics of pre-World War II diplomacy, this book certainly covers all of the bases. The never ending diplomatic dances involving the British, French, Russians, Germans, Italians, Polish, Chinese (Nationalist and Communist) and Japanese (not to mention the various Balkan and Baltic states) frequently resulted in temporary non-aggression agreements and trade pacts between very strange bedfellows. That the Germans and Soviets could climb into bed together after a decade of demonization from both sides tells you the complexity of the diplomatic landscape. The Soviets were shipping raw materials to Germany and the Germans were shipping finished military hardware to the Soviet Union right up to the eve of Barbarossa.This is an extremely comprehensive and well researched piece of work. That, in itself, makes it somewhat difficult to wade through. I can usually read a book of this length (1,000 pages of text) in two weeks, three at most. It took me six weeks to finish this beast, albeit with two different four day breaks. I would recommend this work only to those with a pre-existing background or interest in the subject, looking for in-depth historical background and analysis. This is not pleasure reading.One thing that I appreciated was the author’s tendency to break each long chapter into numerous two or three page topics, each with their own descriptive heading, making it easy to find a stopping point each evening.
My wife and I have read the first volume of Kotkin's biography of Stalin. This book is the second of what will become his three-volume biography.We are only "informed public" readers and hence cannot comment on the historiography or professional skills brought to bear on this book.Nevertheless, we found it uniformly interesting and compelling. We learned a great deal about how Stalin maneuvered and displaced rivals, with a strategic, conniving, and murderous skill. The control of the political apparatus through the NKVD, the shredding of the intelligentsia, the Army, the kulaks, the establishing of the Gulag system, the kangaroo "courts" and show trials--these all amplified our background understanding of Russia. We were left "undecided" about Kotkin's interpretation of Stalin, because the author believes that historians have come to see Stalin as an unredeemed villain. Kotkin's belief is that Stalin represented and created something authentically Russian, a tragedy and a crime uniquely Russian, because Stalin alone could not have created the horrific period all on his own. Kotkin's interpretation of Stalin is more complex than the simple-sided archangel of hell, but it requires the reader to pause and consider this deeper understanding of Russian history.
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