In the years since Stalin's death, his profound influence upon the historical development of Communism has remained elusive and in need of interpretation. Stalinism, as his system has become known, is a phenomenon that embraced all facets of political and social life. While its effect upon Russia and other nations today is far less than it was while Stalin lived, it is by no means dead.
A scholar of Marxism and the Soviet Union, Robert Tucker studied at Harvard University. While working on a doctorate in philosophy, he spent two years as a translator for the United States Embassy in Moscow, where he met his wife Evgeniya Pestretsova. His inability to gain an exit visa for her when he returned to the United States in 1946, which proved a key experience in stimulating his studies.
After completing his dissertation, Tucker worked for the RAND Corporation and taught at Indiana University. He wrote a number of books about Marxism and Stalinism, most notably a two-volume biography of Josef Stalin which adopted a psychological interpretation to explain how Stalin gained and used power.