All You Need To Know on Stalin

We all know Stalin, or at least we think we do. The story of the Georgian student priest who grew up to be one of the 20th century’s most notorious mass-murderers is endlessly fascinating and frequently retold. Yet the man himself remains an enigma, dubbed by some as ‘history’s greatest butcher’ and remembered fondly by others as the visionary leader who defeated Fascism.

Drawing on a range of recent histories, Claire Shaw offers a new portrait of the dictator. She argues that Stalin was both the architect and the product of a violent revolutionary moment: only by considering both the man and his era can we begin to understand the horrors, and the problematic legacy, of his decades in power.