A little hard to rate because of its nature, but I do really enjoy the format of these ‘Great Lives Observed’ books. They offer a flurry of excerpts from Stalin himself, his buddies and worshippers, his enemies, and historians as well. Really does allow the reader to form their own opinion on him rather than the usual ‘he killed a billion people’, and the growing dissenting idea that he single handedly saved the world and did no wrong in the process.