Stalin, Ronald Grigor Suny
Stalin, Ronald Grigor Suny
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Stalin
Passage to Revolution

Author: Ronald Grigor Suny

Narrator: Robbie Stevens

Unabridged: 28 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/06/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

This audiobook narrated by Robbie Stevens tells the spellbinding story of Stalin in his formative years This is the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin from his birth to the October Revolution of 1917, a panoramic and often chilling account of how an impoverished, idealistic youth from the provinces of tsarist Russia was transformed into a cunning and fearsome outlaw who would one day become one of the twentieth century's most ruthless dictators. In this monumental book, Ronald Grigor Suny sheds light on the least understood years of Stalin's career, bringing to life the turbulent world in which he lived and the extraordinary historical events that shaped him. Suny draws on a wealth of new archival evidence from Stalin's early years in the Caucasus to chart the psychological metamorphosis of the young Stalin, taking readers from his boyhood as a Georgian nationalist and romantic poet, through his harsh years of schooling, to his commitment to violent engagement in the underground movement to topple the tsarist autocracy. Stalin emerges as an ambitious climber within the Bolshevik ranks, a resourceful leader of a small terrorist band, and a writer and thinker who was deeply engaged with some of the most incendiary debates of his time. A landmark achievement, Stalin paints an unforgettable portrait of a driven young man who abandoned his religious faith to become a skilled political operative and a single-minded and ruthless rebel.

About Ronald Grigor Suny

Ronald Grigor Suny is William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan; Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago; and senior researcher at the Higher School of Economics, National Research University, St.
Petersburg, Russia. He is the author or editor of eighteen books, including The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents, Second Edition and The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States, Second Edition.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julia on July 21, 2021

Im not in the position to compare this biography to other Stalin biographies, but I would still confidently recommend it to anyone looking for one. Suny is a highly capable historian who takes socialist thought and marxism seriously and on its own terms (not a given in the field of soviet history).......more

Goodreads review by JC on September 04, 2021

This tome was magisterial in size and took me months to finish. I was searching for a Stalin biography for some time by someone who was not an anti-communist, had left-wing sympathies, but wrote with a sort of critical academic detachment, and not a hagiographer for whom defending an individual pers......more

Goodreads review by Gigi on April 21, 2024

Great work indeed. Ronald Suny always writes fascinating books on the history of the South Caucasus and the Russian Empire. I feel that this is the only work that gives an absolutely detailed and non-exhaustive account of how the ''Breaking Bad'' of Ioseb Jugashvili has happened throughout the revo......more

Goodreads review by JAKE on February 02, 2021

Well I finished it. I know I am in the minority here, but I found this really dull and far too long. First 20% early life (interesting) Middle 60% he went here, wrote this, argued with this guy, was arrested and then repeat till I can't feel my lips. Last 20% 1917 and the formation of the USSR (intere......more

Goodreads review by Shrim on April 06, 2023

While reading reviews of Stephen Kotkin's book, Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928, I came across some reference to Ronald Suny's work. In particular, a Jacobin review made a case that a more sympathetic/understanding biography of Stalin can be found in Suny's work. Having read both books, I agre......more