In an exceptionally ambitious biography—the first volume of a projected three takes us from Stalin’s birth, in 1878, up to 1928 in just under 1,000 pages—Stephen Kotkin, a history professor at Princeton, sets out to synthesize the work of these and hundreds of other scholars. Stephen Kotkin has a goal, to remove the fog of mystery and the mythology out of Soviet history forever. His goal in Stalin is to sweep the cobwebs and the mythology out of Soviet historiography forever. He dismisses the Freudians right away, refuting that nothing in or about Stalin’s early life was particularly unusual for a man of his age and background.
Of Stalin's close inner circle; Sergei Kirov’s alcoholic father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis leaving him to grow up in an orphanage. Another member of Stalin's inner circle Grigory Ordzhonikidze, had lost both his parents by the time he was 10. By contrast, the young Stalin, had a mother who, despite her background, was ambitious and energetic, mobilizing her extended family on her talented son’s behalf. …show more content…
By the age of 16, he had made his way into the Tiflis seminary, the “highest rung of the educational ladder in the Caucasus … a stepping-stone to a university elsewhere in the empire.” He eventually dropped out of school, drifting into the shadowy world of far-left politics, but remained a charismatic personality. In Baku, where he went in 1907 to agitate among the oil workers, he engaged in “hostage taking for ransom, protection rackets, piracy,” as well as the odd political assassination. He spent time in and out of prison, showing a special facility for dramatic escapes and adopting a wide range of aliases and
Of Stalin's close inner circle; Sergei Kirov’s alcoholic father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis leaving him to grow up in an orphanage. Another member of Stalin's inner circle Grigory Ordzhonikidze, had lost both his parents by the time he was 10. By contrast, the young Stalin, had a mother who, despite her background, was ambitious and energetic, mobilizing her extended family on her talented son’s behalf. …show more content…
By the age of 16, he had made his way into the Tiflis seminary, the “highest rung of the educational ladder in the Caucasus … a stepping-stone to a university elsewhere in the empire.” He eventually dropped out of school, drifting into the shadowy world of far-left politics, but remained a charismatic personality. In Baku, where he went in 1907 to agitate among the oil workers, he engaged in “hostage taking for ransom, protection rackets, piracy,” as well as the odd political assassination. He spent time in and out of prison, showing a special facility for dramatic escapes and adopting a wide range of aliases and