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Stalin: Russia's Man of Steel
When Joseph Djugashvili was born the son of a poor shoemaker, few suspected he would rise to become one of the twentieth century's most ruthless and powerful dictators.
Enamored as a young man with the revolutionary politics of Lenin, he joined the underground Marxist Party and began his pursuit of power by leading strikes and demonstrations. Six times he was exiled to Siberia for his illicit activities, escaping many times despite below freezing temperatures and on one occasion an attack by a pack of wolves. His instinctive ability to command authority and divide the opposition through lies and deceit set him on a path he would follow to become Russia's most absolute dictator. He was never reticent to shed innocent blood in the pursuit of his own ends, and he carefully orchestrated demonstrations that brought about massacres that he then used to his own revolutionary ends.
His vision was far reaching, and while his initial purpose was to establish a Soviet socialist state his larger goal was world domination. Ultimately responsible for the deaths of over 30 million people, 13 million alone in the Ukrainian famine he caused, Stalin's life is a sober and heartbreaking account of the reign of terror suffered by countless millions at the hands of one man. Illustrated with photographs.
Enamored as a young man with the revolutionary politics of Lenin, he joined the underground Marxist Party and began his pursuit of power by leading strikes and demonstrations. Six times he was exiled to Siberia for his illicit activities, escaping many times despite below freezing temperatures and on one occasion an attack by a pack of wolves. His instinctive ability to command authority and divide the opposition through lies and deceit set him on a path he would follow to become Russia's most absolute dictator. He was never reticent to shed innocent blood in the pursuit of his own ends, and he carefully orchestrated demonstrations that brought about massacres that he then used to his own revolutionary ends.
His vision was far reaching, and while his initial purpose was to establish a Soviet socialist state his larger goal was world domination. Ultimately responsible for the deaths of over 30 million people, 13 million alone in the Ukrainian famine he caused, Stalin's life is a sober and heartbreaking account of the reign of terror suffered by countless millions at the hands of one man. Illustrated with photographs.
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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259 people want to read
About the author
Albert Marrin
58 books82 followersAlbert Marrin is a historian and the author of more than twenty nonfiction books for young people. He has won various awards for his writing, including the 2005 James Madison Book Award and the 2008 National Endowment for Humanities Medal. In 2011, his book Flesh and Blood So Cheap was a National Book Award Finalist. Marrin is the Chairman of the History Department at New York's Yeshiva University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
July 11, 2021
Well, this was disturbing.
However, I think it was worth a whole stack of worldview books because it showed you what such ideas DO. Bloody Sunday, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Terror, the Gulag, the purge, the NKVD, and more is laid bare to see. It shows you how the Marxist ideas were set up in cells, infiltrating unions and tricking every day, hard working families to fall for their ruin. How such cells were set up in the West, for the end goal is to rid the world of capitalism and democracies. You see his influence become popular in China, you meet Hitler and learn how he was influenced by Stalin (then Hitler turns on Stalin and Stalin turns on Hitler—such is the way with men of these philosophies), you walk through the battles of WW2, and then the Cold War and the Iron Curtain that fell across the east. You are introduced to Stalin’s paranoia increasing as he ages and how he purged his own NKVD and family because of it. His death brought true tears, as years of propaganda had done its work—the people hurt. And the troubling aspects of the past that are still very present modern day.
There is no truth, goodness, or beauty here, but rather a troubling run through of history when we don’t fight for ideas that are…
However, I think it was worth a whole stack of worldview books because it showed you what such ideas DO. Bloody Sunday, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Terror, the Gulag, the purge, the NKVD, and more is laid bare to see. It shows you how the Marxist ideas were set up in cells, infiltrating unions and tricking every day, hard working families to fall for their ruin. How such cells were set up in the West, for the end goal is to rid the world of capitalism and democracies. You see his influence become popular in China, you meet Hitler and learn how he was influenced by Stalin (then Hitler turns on Stalin and Stalin turns on Hitler—such is the way with men of these philosophies), you walk through the battles of WW2, and then the Cold War and the Iron Curtain that fell across the east. You are introduced to Stalin’s paranoia increasing as he ages and how he purged his own NKVD and family because of it. His death brought true tears, as years of propaganda had done its work—the people hurt. And the troubling aspects of the past that are still very present modern day.
There is no truth, goodness, or beauty here, but rather a troubling run through of history when we don’t fight for ideas that are…
March 1, 2014
This is a well-written and vivid book, although it's not a serious book. It does not reference sources, for example, even when you wonder where the material they're summarizing came from, and tends to make broad generalizations. It sounds a bit like a textbook, in that it simplifies and doesn't get into the grey areas.
However, it does an okay job of pointing out the atrocities and contradictions of the regime that killed 20 million Russians and destroyed their future. Stalin is clearly the man who threw away the greatest accomplishments of 19th-century Russians, as well as destroying their future, as well. Today's Russians are still paying the price.
The author clearly has an ax to grind. At one point, he throws out the accusation that in the United States, American liberals borrowed communist ideas in the form of social security. I've searched assiduously for evidence to back this up, and it appears that it's an accusation only put forth by the far right. In addition, the numbers of deaths appears to be wildly exaggerated. In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, academic Timothy Snyder informs us that the number of people killed by Stalin has been revised drastically downwards since the opening up of the Soviet archives. Marrin does not benefit from such research, and in fact, makes the accusation that most of the people who went to the gulag died, when in fact, only about 50% did.
This book seems to be written as a young-adult (YA) book, and it reads as such. Reader take note.
However, it does an okay job of pointing out the atrocities and contradictions of the regime that killed 20 million Russians and destroyed their future. Stalin is clearly the man who threw away the greatest accomplishments of 19th-century Russians, as well as destroying their future, as well. Today's Russians are still paying the price.
The author clearly has an ax to grind. At one point, he throws out the accusation that in the United States, American liberals borrowed communist ideas in the form of social security. I've searched assiduously for evidence to back this up, and it appears that it's an accusation only put forth by the far right. In addition, the numbers of deaths appears to be wildly exaggerated. In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, academic Timothy Snyder informs us that the number of people killed by Stalin has been revised drastically downwards since the opening up of the Soviet archives. Marrin does not benefit from such research, and in fact, makes the accusation that most of the people who went to the gulag died, when in fact, only about 50% did.
This book seems to be written as a young-adult (YA) book, and it reads as such. Reader take note.
April 29, 2016
If I were this author I would’ve kicked myself for not waiting another year to publish, this book’s date is 1988 – right before the iron curtain fell and much more information became available. Had it not been for this I might have given the book another star.
You may want to read something written more recently. But overall this was a pretty good book. It gave me the overview of Stalin's life that I wanted without going into a ton of detail. Someday though, I’ll have to read a more complete book on Russian history as this one leaves you with no idea what really caused the communist revolution. You do however get a good look at Stalin the man.
You may want to read something written more recently. But overall this was a pretty good book. It gave me the overview of Stalin's life that I wanted without going into a ton of detail. Someday though, I’ll have to read a more complete book on Russian history as this one leaves you with no idea what really caused the communist revolution. You do however get a good look at Stalin the man.
June 28, 2022
“You are a tormentor, that’s what you are! You torment your own son…. You torment your wife…. You torment the whole Russian people!” So screamed Nadezhda Alliluyeva to her husband, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. Nadezhda would later shoot herself when she learned that Stalin had orchestrated the greatest man-made famine in history at that time* in an effort to collectivize agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants. She was no longer able to live with the monster who tried to keep his crimes hidden from the rest of the world. Stalin did not attend his wife’s funeral, nor did he visit her grave. Her life, like the millions of others that he destroyed, meant nothing to him. Over the nearly 30 years that Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with absolute power, he was responsible for the deaths of no fewer than 20 million of his people in peacetime. Tens of millions more suffered untold miseries in his slave labor camps. As Stalin himself said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” All of this and so much more is part of the captivating and haunting portrait that historian Albert Marrin paints of Stalin, who Marrin rightly concludes was “among the two or three worst men who ever lived….” Since Marrin’s biography of Stalin was written shortly before the final fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, certain sentences read as if the Soviet Union still exists. Keeping that in mind as you read, this is still a very worthwhile book to pick up and use as a starting point to understand the rise of Soviet communism and the life of Stalin.
* Between 1958 and 1961, another communist regime under Mao Zedong in China carried out a similar strategy to Stalin’s in an effort to collectivize agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants. As a result, up to 40 million Chinese died of hunger, superseding Stalin's death toll and making it the greatest man-made famine in human history.
* Between 1958 and 1961, another communist regime under Mao Zedong in China carried out a similar strategy to Stalin’s in an effort to collectivize agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants. As a result, up to 40 million Chinese died of hunger, superseding Stalin's death toll and making it the greatest man-made famine in human history.
December 10, 2024
4.75 stars. Really good. I was supposed to completely finish it, but there was only ten pages left so I did. The stuff about the Gulag was hard but good. I think there’s something to be said about learning what Stalin was like because he isn’t as known as Hitler. He commuted the same crimes and had the same evil disposition toward humanity, but somehow no one knows who he is. That is dangerous. When a people doesn’t bother to learn about the evils of the people that came before they, they too will do the same.
February 2, 2022
Wonderful and vivid biography of Stalin, full of anecdotes that help you experience the period.
November 9, 2025
Wow Stalin was a despicable man. great book to learn about his part in WWII and in terrorizing his own country of the USSR
April 10, 2022
Author Albert Marrin is an excellent source for high school (maybe junior high) age students interested in biographies of important historical figures, as well as historical events. This is such a thorough examination of Stalin's life from start to finish. Not boring at all, and even a little graphic. I had to skip over some sections; but it's Communism, it's tyranny, it's authoritarianism, and it's NOT pretty. This is what tyranny looks like, whether it's called Nazism, Fascism, Communism, and at times even Socialism. If you aren't acquainted with it, this may be a good place to start.
December 10, 2008
This book tells a great deal about who Stalin was, what he did, and basically how evil he was. This book helped me learn a lot about WWI & WWII and the form of government the U.S.S.R. had at that time. Also, you meet Hitler, and how he was involved in Stalin's miserable life. This book makes you appreicat freedom!
March 24, 2013
I finished "Hitler" by Albert Marrin and thought "Wow! I don't think anyone could be as evil and destructive as Hitler!" Then I read "Stalin".
May 3, 2022
Stalin's legacy is most often juxtaposed with Hitler's, a natural comparison given the central roles of Russia and Germany in WWII. Like Hitler, Stalin's name is synonymized with "dictator" and associated with the term "genocide"—and rightly so. Despite this, his life and background are not as well-known as that of his similarly notorious enemy (and one-time ally!). Josef Stalin's impact on the world is as great if not greater than that of Hitler and anyone who seeks a strong grasp of 20th century history and modern global affairs must understand Stalin's motivations, ideologies, and actions. Marrin's book is neither an exhaustive nor academic biography (there are no sources and it's billed as being for "young adults"). Still, if you want a quick read that gives the rundown on who Stalin was and why he's important, this suffices.
Although historical context on the conditions of Tsarist Russia is provided, the book pretty strictly sticks to the timeline of Stalin's life. Marrin profiles the dismal poverty and abuse experienced by Russians under the Romanovs, for generations as serfs tilling land for nobles (the sickle) and, after the Industrial Revolution, working in factories on mass production of goods for capitalist magnates (the hammer). Industrialization represented no improvement for Russian workers—18 hours days were the norm. Women would give birth on the factory floor and be expected to be back to work in two days. They often kept their babies in tow right by their factory machines. The Romanovs were woefully incompetent (see the failed and completely unnecessary Russo-Japanese War) and stupidly repressive (the government massacred over 300 peaceful religious protestors) and unwilling to change course (despite Nicholas II's vast defense spending, Russia's army was so bad in WWI it should not have even been on the field). Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized on all of this to foment revolution. This is the world Stalin was born into.
Poor, abused, wretched, rebellious, (he was expelled from seminary), and gifted, it's not difficult to understand why Stalin was drawn toward the revolutionary works of Marx. In addition to his anti-religious agitation, Stalin became obsessed with Marx's ideas and read voraciously on the subjects of Communism and socialism (this seems common with revolutionaries—Mao Zedong ran a successful bookstore, Ho Chi Minh was a prolific publisher, Lenin was rarely seen without a book, even Hitler was an avid reader). Communism became Stalin's religion—Marx was his Jesus, Lenin his earthly embodiment. Marrin traces Stalin's joining of the Communist Party, linking with Lenin, and his Machiavellian rise to power. Marrin gives a good sense of Stalin as emblematic of the paradoxical nature of the revolutionary, compelled by an abiding sense of injustice yet willing to destroy colleagues by spreading false rumors, instigate bloody riots (in one instance he promised rioters Tsarist troops would not fire on them—he knew they would), engage in armed robbery (most of his "friends" were criminals), and eventually lead armed struggle against the Tsarist regime that resulted in the deaths of millions of Russians (this aside from their myriad WWI casualties).
Marrin traces Stalin's consolidation of power over Russia and the strange sort of "liberation" which this entailed. Land reform, the establishment of Comintern, the Five Year Plan, and these effects of this policies are described. Stalin turned Russia into a superpower, but at the expense of severe political repression and extreme totalitarianism (Mao, a Stalin acolyte, would borrow heavily from Russia's playbook with his own cult of personality and similar policies like the Great Leap Forward). Religious freedom was nonexistent (unsurprising). Marrin does a great job in profiling Stalin's pivotal role in causing WWII. Stalin's Russia sought no less than a complete communist globe, and therefore through Comintern funded and fomented revolution throughout Europe, Germany being one of these countries. In attempting to subvert the Weimar government, German communists formed an alliance with none other than the NSDAP, or Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler (who admired and borrowed heavily from Stalin!). Stalin wasn't planning on the Nazis taking power, however, and while they formed an alliance that lasted even through Germany's invasion of Poland (people forget this was a joint invasion, Russia took the East of Poland) Hitler's ultimate plan was to destroy "Jewish-Marxism" and "racially inferior" Slavs. Somehow, Stalin was shocked when Hitler turned on the USSR. Had he read "Mein Kampf," however, he would have known Hitler made his intention to eventually invade and colonize the Soviet Union clear in the 1920s! Perhaps he thought he was bluffing.
Marrin profiles Russia's alliance with the US and Britain (in which Russia truly did the brunt of the fighting) and Stalin's cruel but ultimately successful leadership. This is someone who did not want Soviet PoWs back (not even his own son!), created a gulag system under which millions toiled, purged his own army officers (even before WWII, which seriously compromised Russia's efficiency in the early stages of the war), and even promised support to the Polish resistance against the Nazis in order to goad them into conflict before purposefully withholding support. His reason? He wanted them killed off, for he thought they would be too difficult to control in a post-WWII Soviet Union. And of course encouraged the wholesale slaughter of Germans once they were subdued (although Germany's reputation was far from pristine, as they participated in wholesale slaughter and rape of Russians throughout WWII as well).
Marrin finishes in outlining Russia's post-WWII machinations which led to the Cold War—Russia's effort to consolidate control over Europe, the establishment of NATO, the oppositional Marshall Plan, the Korean War, Russia's rocky alliance with China, Comintern's global intrigues, and Stalin's continued purging and repression of Russian government officials and civilians. The last few pages briefly cover Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev's famous repudiation of Stalin in 1956, and de-Stalinization. There's much more to the story of the Soviet Union, of course (interestingly, this book was published just a year before the Berlin Wall fell), however this is where the part coincident with Stalin's life ends.
Josef Stalin was truly diabolical. While Marrin may be a bit heavy on the normativity, some of the death toll figures are inflated, and a few claims are questionable (social security is inspired by Communism?), most of what's in here can be corroborated elsewhere. Marrin does an adequate job of giving us examples of why the name "Stalin" evokes uneasy sentiments to this day.
Although historical context on the conditions of Tsarist Russia is provided, the book pretty strictly sticks to the timeline of Stalin's life. Marrin profiles the dismal poverty and abuse experienced by Russians under the Romanovs, for generations as serfs tilling land for nobles (the sickle) and, after the Industrial Revolution, working in factories on mass production of goods for capitalist magnates (the hammer). Industrialization represented no improvement for Russian workers—18 hours days were the norm. Women would give birth on the factory floor and be expected to be back to work in two days. They often kept their babies in tow right by their factory machines. The Romanovs were woefully incompetent (see the failed and completely unnecessary Russo-Japanese War) and stupidly repressive (the government massacred over 300 peaceful religious protestors) and unwilling to change course (despite Nicholas II's vast defense spending, Russia's army was so bad in WWI it should not have even been on the field). Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized on all of this to foment revolution. This is the world Stalin was born into.
Poor, abused, wretched, rebellious, (he was expelled from seminary), and gifted, it's not difficult to understand why Stalin was drawn toward the revolutionary works of Marx. In addition to his anti-religious agitation, Stalin became obsessed with Marx's ideas and read voraciously on the subjects of Communism and socialism (this seems common with revolutionaries—Mao Zedong ran a successful bookstore, Ho Chi Minh was a prolific publisher, Lenin was rarely seen without a book, even Hitler was an avid reader). Communism became Stalin's religion—Marx was his Jesus, Lenin his earthly embodiment. Marrin traces Stalin's joining of the Communist Party, linking with Lenin, and his Machiavellian rise to power. Marrin gives a good sense of Stalin as emblematic of the paradoxical nature of the revolutionary, compelled by an abiding sense of injustice yet willing to destroy colleagues by spreading false rumors, instigate bloody riots (in one instance he promised rioters Tsarist troops would not fire on them—he knew they would), engage in armed robbery (most of his "friends" were criminals), and eventually lead armed struggle against the Tsarist regime that resulted in the deaths of millions of Russians (this aside from their myriad WWI casualties).
Marrin traces Stalin's consolidation of power over Russia and the strange sort of "liberation" which this entailed. Land reform, the establishment of Comintern, the Five Year Plan, and these effects of this policies are described. Stalin turned Russia into a superpower, but at the expense of severe political repression and extreme totalitarianism (Mao, a Stalin acolyte, would borrow heavily from Russia's playbook with his own cult of personality and similar policies like the Great Leap Forward). Religious freedom was nonexistent (unsurprising). Marrin does a great job in profiling Stalin's pivotal role in causing WWII. Stalin's Russia sought no less than a complete communist globe, and therefore through Comintern funded and fomented revolution throughout Europe, Germany being one of these countries. In attempting to subvert the Weimar government, German communists formed an alliance with none other than the NSDAP, or Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler (who admired and borrowed heavily from Stalin!). Stalin wasn't planning on the Nazis taking power, however, and while they formed an alliance that lasted even through Germany's invasion of Poland (people forget this was a joint invasion, Russia took the East of Poland) Hitler's ultimate plan was to destroy "Jewish-Marxism" and "racially inferior" Slavs. Somehow, Stalin was shocked when Hitler turned on the USSR. Had he read "Mein Kampf," however, he would have known Hitler made his intention to eventually invade and colonize the Soviet Union clear in the 1920s! Perhaps he thought he was bluffing.
Marrin profiles Russia's alliance with the US and Britain (in which Russia truly did the brunt of the fighting) and Stalin's cruel but ultimately successful leadership. This is someone who did not want Soviet PoWs back (not even his own son!), created a gulag system under which millions toiled, purged his own army officers (even before WWII, which seriously compromised Russia's efficiency in the early stages of the war), and even promised support to the Polish resistance against the Nazis in order to goad them into conflict before purposefully withholding support. His reason? He wanted them killed off, for he thought they would be too difficult to control in a post-WWII Soviet Union. And of course encouraged the wholesale slaughter of Germans once they were subdued (although Germany's reputation was far from pristine, as they participated in wholesale slaughter and rape of Russians throughout WWII as well).
Marrin finishes in outlining Russia's post-WWII machinations which led to the Cold War—Russia's effort to consolidate control over Europe, the establishment of NATO, the oppositional Marshall Plan, the Korean War, Russia's rocky alliance with China, Comintern's global intrigues, and Stalin's continued purging and repression of Russian government officials and civilians. The last few pages briefly cover Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev's famous repudiation of Stalin in 1956, and de-Stalinization. There's much more to the story of the Soviet Union, of course (interestingly, this book was published just a year before the Berlin Wall fell), however this is where the part coincident with Stalin's life ends.
Josef Stalin was truly diabolical. While Marrin may be a bit heavy on the normativity, some of the death toll figures are inflated, and a few claims are questionable (social security is inspired by Communism?), most of what's in here can be corroborated elsewhere. Marrin does an adequate job of giving us examples of why the name "Stalin" evokes uneasy sentiments to this day.
September 28, 2018
In the early 20th century eastern Europe was gripped with poverty and terrible tsars. Meanwhile in Georgia a man with strong beliefs was learning about Marxism and how the people should rule the government. Little did anyone know that he was to become the sole ruler of Russia. With him came a wave of terror, purges, and brainwashing. Stalin or the man of steel they called him, would change global history for years to come.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Stalin and what made him become ruthless. The book tells us about his early life and his hardships which led him to want change. It tells us about his failures as well as his accomplishments. One quote in Stalin's bio goes on to say, ‘ Bitter against the world, oppressed by fear, he didn't feel safe anywhere or with anyone’, It shows us how paranoid and delusional he was. This book was really interesting, i learned a lot about the Russian history. For anyone who loves history, you sure will enjoy this book. And for those who do not like or are not interested in history, i'm sure this book will change your opinion.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Stalin and what made him become ruthless. The book tells us about his early life and his hardships which led him to want change. It tells us about his failures as well as his accomplishments. One quote in Stalin's bio goes on to say, ‘ Bitter against the world, oppressed by fear, he didn't feel safe anywhere or with anyone’, It shows us how paranoid and delusional he was. This book was really interesting, i learned a lot about the Russian history. For anyone who loves history, you sure will enjoy this book. And for those who do not like or are not interested in history, i'm sure this book will change your opinion.
June 1, 2019
Wow. I read Hitler by Marrin first, and thought nobody could be as bad as Hitler. Then I read Stalin. I am not sure that Stalin was insane, as I think about Hitler. But I didn't realize how influential and murderous he was. So many dystopian novels based on governmental control sound like his regime, only his was worse. I had no idea how many people he had killed. You breathe a sigh of relief when he finally dies at the end, and like Marrin and the people under Stalin, are glad he stays in the grave and can't come out to terrorize anyone else. His use of terror to control his people also helps me understand modern Africa, knowing that many of Africa's freedom fighters went to Russia for training. The biggest take-away is the warning of the dangers of Marxist thought and Communistic practice. How thankful I am to be born in a free country, and may our flag ever wave o'er the home of the free and the brave!
February 16, 2025
I never truly realized how evil and corrupt Joseph Stalin was until I read this book. Marrin does an amazing job displaying the deep emotions and betrayal that takes places from Stalin’s youth to adulthood. How he grew from a small, scrawny boy with strong Marxist opinions to a powerful, evil dictator of one of the greatest nations in the world. Marrin writes how Stalin grew up in a lonely town, where his father was mean and demanding and his mother was sick and frail. How the love drained from Stalin so quickly after his father’s death and his sad upbringing in a strict, religious boarding school. As Stalin found out the man he wanted to be, he decided power was his only answer. And power was something Stalin did get. This book was fascinating!!
December 17, 2021
Wow.
I was afraid this would be dry, boring, and hard to understand, but it was actually really well-written and easy to follow.
I do wonder what would have been different if Stalin had had a loving father. Maybe the world never would have had a man of steel.
It comes as no surprise that this is a very dark book. It's hard for me to believe that someone could be so heartless and cruel. My goodness, he was a complete maniac.
The descriptions of what he did to people are quite sickening, so fair warning.
I'm giving this book 5 stars because it's well-written and very informative, not because of what he stood for. (that should be obvious, but I just wanna make sure...)
I was afraid this would be dry, boring, and hard to understand, but it was actually really well-written and easy to follow.
I do wonder what would have been different if Stalin had had a loving father. Maybe the world never would have had a man of steel.
It comes as no surprise that this is a very dark book. It's hard for me to believe that someone could be so heartless and cruel. My goodness, he was a complete maniac.
The descriptions of what he did to people are quite sickening, so fair warning.
I'm giving this book 5 stars because it's well-written and very informative, not because of what he stood for. (that should be obvious, but I just wanna make sure...)
March 19, 2025
Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel by Albert Marrin is an interesting, haunting story about one of the twentieth century’s most ruthless and powerful dictators. Joseph Djugashvili lived by Lenin’s revolutionary politics, joining the underground Marxist Party as a young man and going ono to be exiled to Siberia six times for his actions. His instinctiveness in authority and being able to command large hordes of people allowed him to ruthlessly murder over 30 million people within his life. Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel is a heartbreaking account of the reign of terror suffered by countless individuals.
August 28, 2019
Excellent overview of Stalin's life for young people, middle school age. Marrin clearly loves history and he loves telling history as a story, which of course, it is. However, for modern Americans, history must be dry, filled with dates, and written like a textbook with the information presented in disconnected little boxes to be considered scholarly. That isn't Marrin's way. If you're expecting extensive source references, etc. you won't find them here, but rather a good broad look at the life of a very evil man.
November 17, 2023
This book was written in such a way that it captivated me, although not in a joyous way, as the subject matter is intense and often horrifying. This book was easy to read and full of facts surrounding his reign of terror and the resulting culture and political situations continuing in Russia long after Stalin's death. It also included a fair bit about how he grew up, his family life, etc. Read more like a story than a textbook. Little bits were dry, but mostly it was a page turner.
December 27, 2019
While it was an interesting read as a child, the author also brings a lot of very unsubstantiated claims into the book (such as the idea that social security was inspired by communism, a claim generally only made by the far right in the US) and a lot of his facts are out of date.
Would not recommend. Get a newer book, or use the internet.
Would not recommend. Get a newer book, or use the internet.
November 28, 2023
Stalin: Russia's Man of Steel successfully highlights atrocities committed by Stalin and his followers, but I was often curious while reading what information the author was basing some of his comments upon. Unfortunately, the author did not provide sources. As it was originally published in the 80s, some of the information is outdated or has been disproven with the fall of the USSR.
April 30, 2020
This book was very informative but Stalin was a terrible person so I won't read this books again. Also the writing was good but told you some things in detail that are horrifying. I give it 2 stars because if the writing.
July 22, 2021
I didn't like this as much as Marrin's other books, maybe because I'm more familiar with Stalin than his other topics. But it was still an interesting read, chilling and sickening at times, because it is Stalin we're talking about.
January 13, 2024
Thorough, but I had to skim some passages as it dragged or because we just couldn’t take anymore horrible stories. Published in 1988, it was accurate for the time, but ends just before major event. It was a good choice for reading about a tough topic.
November 17, 2025
Great book if you love history! This book should be recommended reading for all high schoolers. If the next generation isn't educated and warned about this kind of leadership, it's bound to be repeated. America is not immune. All it takes is one generation of ignorance.
May 18, 2018
This was a well-written book for young people about the life and times of Stalin. It was all I would care to know about this evil man and his atrocities to the Russian people.
April 6, 2020
It's honestly kind of sad all the things he had to go through as a young boy.But that does not excuse what he did as an adult. Overall an informative read.
November 3, 2021
Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I learned so much.
February 17, 2022
Honestly everyone should read this. It's easy to understand but eye opening to the time. Depicts the truth as horrific as it is.
April 22, 2025
There are no words. What a depraved psychopath. Also like what Mao did to his people.
December 9, 2025
Welp. That was a lot of suffering.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews