Political Thought of Joseph Stalin

by Erik van Ree

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the political thought of Joseph Stalin. Making full use of the documentation that has recently become available, including Stalin's private library with his handwritten marginal notes, the book provides many insights into Stalin and also into Western and Russian Marxist intellectual traditions. Overall, the book argues that Stalin's political thought is not primarily indebted to the Russian autocratic tradition but belongs to a tradition of revolutionary patriotism that stretches back through revolutionary Marxism to Jacobin thoughts in the French Revolution. It makes interesting comparisons between Stalin, Lenin, Bukharin and Trotskii and explains a great deal about the Stalinist era's many key problems, including the industrial revolution from above, socialist cultural policy, Soviet treatment of nationalities, pre-war and Cold War foreign policy, and the purges.

Genres: History, Russia, Politics, Nonfiction

384 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 5, 2002

Reviews

[Victor Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a balanced assessment of the political thought of Stalin. As Ree says in the introduction, most people perceive Stalin as Shrewd but cynical, believing that ideas were simple means to the ends of political power for its own sake, but they seldom conceive of Stalin as a genuine Marxist thinker with expansive interests (as is the case with most Marxists).

Ree argues contrary to many historians and scholars, notably historians like Ian Gray, that Stalin was actually not a Russian nationalist but a revolutionary patriot and a continuation of the Western tradition starting with the Jacobins and similar radicals within Russia and Karl Marx as well as Engels and Lenin. In other words, we come to the "shocking" realization that both the successes and failures of his leadership can be understood through the prism of Marxist ideology as an instrument to make sense of rapidly evolving international and domestic conflicts.

The author does a satisfying job of presenting Stalin's ideas relating to politics, economics, culture, etc. in a comprehensive manner that illuminates the reasoning for many controversial actions of his tenure. My only real complaint is that Ree defaults to moralizing about how this is bad, but even in this moment he says something very insightful: However much many in the West would like to distance themselves from the Stalinist legacy, this is not the product of some Oriental or "Asiatic" conception of politics, this legacy is, to quote Rees conclusion, "our own flesh and blood". The revolutionary legacy of Stalin,with all its dark stains and immense triumphs, is part and parcel of the Western heritage.