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Stalin, vol. II: waiting for Hitler, 1928–1941

2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 94; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ia/iiy103

1468-2346

Vladimir Tismăneanu,

Soviet and Russian History

Stephen Kotkin's second volume of his projected trilogy is a superb achievement both in terms of intellectual scope and conceptual depth. It addresses the making of the Stalinist totalitarian despotism within a rigorously constructed framework that includes the domestic conditions, the international tensions and the ideological polarizations during what W. H. Auden aptly called ‘a low dishonest decade’. This book is not only about Stalin and his rivals within the Bolshevik elite and neither is it limited to the impact of international crises on Stalin's choices. It is a comprehensive treatise on the explosive competition and inescapable battle between two ideology-driven dictators—Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. They were immensely different beings, biographically and culturally, yet they shared an irreducible hostility to the bourgeois world. Kotkin is right in portraying Stalin as an occasional opportunist consistently dedicated to his utopian ideals. He was pragmatic, realistic and merciless. The human price to be paid for accomplishing his objectives did not matter to him: the despot was certain that he was right and all his critics, from Leon Trotsky to Nikolai Bukharin, were wrong. Collectivizing the agriculture was for Stalin and his team (including Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich and Sergei Kirov) a matter of life and death. They were fanatics whose belief system clashed with those of their rivals. Stalin saw himself as Lenin's only legitimate heir and this was the wellspring of his adamant self-confidence and unbreakable will. His associates, whom he considered comrades-in-arms, partook in the construction of the totalitarian Leviathan. Until the day of his death, 65 years ago, on 5 March 1953, Stalin's self-image was that of ‘today's Lenin’. Like his mentor and idol, Stalin conceived of himself as a revolutionary theorist and the main codifier of Marxism–Leninism. The principal merit of Kotkin's brilliant book is his successful effort to fathom Stalin's mind: the hidden calculations, motivations, rationalizations and idiosyncrasies; the dialectics of blatant cynicism; and the ideological frenzy that explains his strategic and tactical options.