Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and Legacy

Conventional beliefs and cliches are contradicted and disproved, inaccuracies and misconceptions are corrected, and the facts about Stalin's intellect, ancestry, and the fortunes of his personal effects after his death are fully examined. Perhaps most remarkable of all are the Medvedevs' revelations and contentions concerning Stalin's death: There has been much suspicion over whether he was assassinated or died of natural causes, and the authors go a long way toward resolving this question.

The Unknown Stalin resonates with particular intensity due to the personal detail and recollections of the two authors—each of whom has his own history as a Russian dissident and commentator. This startling new work represents one of the most significant contributions to the study of Russian history in decades, a book of vital interest to scholars and general readers.

Two former Soviet dissidents offer a series of 15 essays, penned separately and together, examining different aspects of Joseph Stalin's tenure as the head of the Soviet Union. They explore questions over whether Stalin was secretly assassinated and who Stalin had attempted to groom as his heir in the event of his death. The processes and politics of building nuclear weapons are explored in a number of essays. Stalin's relationship to science, including the pseudo-science of Lysenko, is discussed. Other essays explore Stalin's conduct of World War II. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

Except for Hitler, perhaps no 20th-century historical figure has more speculation swirling about him than Stalin. But this work by two former Soviet dissidents only partially clears the mist. The work is no chronological biography; instead, it is organized thematically, making it difficult for those unfamiliar with the issues. Another of the book's weaknesses is that some of the legends the authors debunk, such as the charge that Stalin was poisoned, are not widely believed in the West. Despite these flaws, there's a lot of fascinating material. Not surprisingly, since Zhores Medvedev (The Legacy of Chernobyl) is a former Soviet scientist, much of it has to do with Stalin's attitude toward science. The authors (Roy wrote Let History Judge) show how Stalin was at heart a scientific totalitarian-he was willing to modify his view of science if it served his purposes, but unwilling to open up science to outside forces. Instead, as he did in other aspects of Soviet life, Stalin changed his views on science to purge political opponents who might threaten his power base. The authors also detail a little-known nuclear accident in 1951, arguing convincingly that the toll from the accident at Chelyabinsk-40 (the actual number of whose victims is still unknown) was made worse because the officials chose a "course of action that would demand considerable human sacrifice." As others have emphasized, human sacrifice was the norm during the Stalinist era. But there's not enough new here to attract those who are not scholars or those already intrigued by Stalin's life. (Feb. 27) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Roy Medvedev is the historian whose monumental Let History Judge was the first major insider account by a prominent Soviet dissident. He lives in Moscow.
Zhores Medvedev is the author of The Legacy of Chernobyl, among other books of Russian political commentary. He has lived in London since his exile from the Soviet Union in 1973.