Stalin: The Kremlin Mountaineer

Icons

by Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson, the most celebrated popular historian of our time, takes a scalpel to Stalin, whom he considers “one of the outstanding monsters of history.” Johnson sets forth the essence of Stalin’s life, character, and career. “It has been a hateful task, which has caused me much pain and disgust,” he writes with characteristic candor. “But it has been a duty I have performed not without a certain grim satisfaction.” Stalin poses a particular challenge to a How does one render such a monster human? While Johnson doesn’t flinch from chronicling Stalin’s rise to absolute power—the remorseless vendetta against Leon Trotsky, the development of the Gulag, the extermination of millions of peasants—he also shows Stalin playing billiards, listening to his adored Mozart, and annotating Marx’s Capital in the margins. It is, in concise form, the story of Russia in the twentieth dark and murderous, a stage on which to display humanity’s infinite capacity for self-destruction.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Russia, Politics, War, World War II

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2014

About the author

Paul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe.

Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979), A History of the English People (1987), Intellectuals (1988), The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815—1830 (1991), Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999), A History of the American People (2000), A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974), Napoleon (2002), George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982).

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short overview of Stalin's life, written in a very clear and simple style, useful if you want to get details about his beliefs, behaviour and the meaning of some of his political decisions.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I shall bring him forth and shine on him the pitiless light of history."
- Paul Johnson, Stalin: The Kremlin Mountaineer



Good biographies are difficult. But short biographies amaze me. They have to float between giving enough information to pull the reader in, and history to give context without drowning the valuable space with background. Paul Johnson, one of the great, popular biographers of the 2oth Century pulls it off well with his short survey of Stalin.

Both my wife and I loved micro biographies when we were kids. I can't even remember the series I'd devour but my local library and school library both carried short biographies of famous Americans, etc., and while aiming for the 4th to 6th grade crowd, the books seldom wrote down to their audience. Even as an 8-year-old, I appreciated that. While I still love the short format, I'm not sure yet how I feel about the Icon Series (from Amazon publishing). Most of these are only available on Kindle and as a 2013 article in the Atlantic pointed out, of the first 10 books in the series, only one was about a woman. So, I'm giving them a chance. I do love Oxford's 'Very Short Introduction' series, so hopefully, I don't get into these and find myself disappointed 4 or 5 books in.

[Paolo Khoury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just thought that this book would be more profound and less shallow.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, concise review of the life of Stalin. This is at least the third biography I have read by Johnson (Churchill and Socrates) but I have not read any of his extended works. This series (Icons) provides a nice collection of brief biographies written by interesting authors. Another in this series is Lucian Freud by Phoebe Hoban.

A good refresher on a historical figure who has greatly influenced the world.

[Valentin Derevlean · Rating 4 out of 5]

O biografie bună, scurtă și gîndită special pentru a arăta lumii un monstru politic. Nu e un must al biografiilor lui Stalin, însă e o recapitulare potrivită și o bună introducere pentru cei curioși și pasionați, aflați la început de drum.

Cum citesc cărți de istorie doar ptr a-mi reaminti lucruri din școală și ptr a plasa literatura cum trebuie :) ptr mine a căzut perfect. sunt cateva lucruri pe care nu le stiam, sunt si controverse rezolvate lejer din motive de spatiu, probabil. insa raman la impresia ca e un volum potrivit pentru oricine.

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you go into Stalin: The Kremlin Mountaineer expecting a full length biography, well, you're bound to be disappointed. But if you read this with the knowledge that it's not really a book at all, it's more of just a longish essay, you'll find a lot to like about it. This is a short, well written, and engaging biography written by the author of classics of history like Modern Times. It's a very good primer or refresher on Stalin's life.

[Caglar Koca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasted four hours of my life on this book, which is nothing but a propaganda with no organization whatsoever. In biographic works, one would expect either a chronological or thematic organization. This book has none. It jumps from Stalin's relationship with Lenin to Stalin's relationship with Jews in the same paragraph. Similarly, as the previous paragraph describes events of 1948, you can find yourself in 1936 in the next paragraph. In this manner, this book resembles a high school project.

At this moment, I want to make one thing clear: No one likes Stalin. My review is not to save him from humiliation or to justify his actions for class warfare. My review is simply academic.

We all know from more reliable sources that Stalin has been a harsh autocrat. Some actions of his, like the Great Purge, are even well documented. The author uses these pieces of information and disperses his gibberish among them. He rarely offers sources. One of his sources is Robert Conquest. He quotes Conquest on "the only case of a purely man-made famine"; while he deliberately ignores Irish Potato Famine and Bengal Famines. Both of them intensified due to British taxation policy, and the latter cost lives of 100 millions. Even though what Stalin did was no different than others, his actions are judged while others ignored.

The book also has so many contradictions. At one point you learn that Stalin read many classics and owned 20.000 books, the author even claims it is a large collection. Later, you learn that although he had 20.000 books, no one has ever seen him read one. A few pages later, Ribbentrop offers a gift of "Mein Kampf", which according to the author Stalin had already read. As one can see, even Stalin's reading habits are not well established.

Just in the famines, the author goes a great deal to absolve capitalism while bashing socialism. He claims no one in tsarist Russia, not even the tsar himself is as free as someone in Britain or the US. This is obviously propaganda, as only rich are free in those countries.

I believe, reading from wikipedia may give more objective information than this book. It is four hours of my life that I wasted and I urge everyone not to do so.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stalin : The Kremlin Mountaineer (2014) by Paul Johnson is a remarkably short, but remarkably punchy biography of Joseph Stalin. Paul Johnson manages to create quite a picture in few pages of how Stalin operated and the way the Russian Communist government operated. 

The book starts with Stalin's youth and rise to power via being a bank robber who funded the Communist Party to his rise to supreme power after Lenin's death. While painting a picture of a murderous monster Johnson also points out that Stalin didn't make the Soviet state a murderous entity, it was from the start under Lenin. Johnson also makes the point that Stalin killed people in a doctrinaire Marxist way and really strongly believed in Marxism and what he was doing. Stalin's incredible use of the state to kill people is described in great detail. 

Stalin : The Kremlin Mountaineer would have been better if it was twice or three times as long, but as it stands it's a remarkable portrait of one of the twentieth century's great monsters. 

[Blossom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was...interesting. I really enjoy (appreciate?) Paul Johnson but this read like a list of facts and figures with some quotes thrown in. It was not the best I've read by Johnson. However, it was a simple introduction to Stalin. I 'know' more about him that I did before, and some that I wasn't sure I needed to know. But the more I think about the details, I know that they all fed into who Stalin became and so the details may not have been superfluous.

It goes from Stalin's birth (as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) through his death. It gave accounts of his various activities throughout his life as well as his strange behaviors and violent deeds. It told of his relationship with women, his wives and children, those in his inner circle, and other political individuals and groups. Johnson supposes what went on in Stalin's mind at times but relied on others' accounts many times.

[Stan Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short bio of Stalin. Johnson is a marvelous writer of history.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook is pretty good. It covers the topic well.

[Brice Karickhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read so many books about 20th century Russia, but somehow never got around to reading an actual biography of Stalin. I figured it was time, and this was the one available on Kindle Unlimited so it’s the one I got. I was incredibly pleased! Super readable. Great balance of being informative yet concise. I’ll for sure read more biographies by this author, of which there seem to be quite a few!

[Kirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exceptionally disjointed and studded with factual errors that are irrelevant to his brief against Stalin (e.g. attributing total war in the 20th century to Britain's decision to repatriate Napoleon's corpse is deeply stupid: Stalin's nickname was "Koba" not "Kobo"; Stalin could hardly have become a Bolshevik in 1899 before the Bolsheviks were founded; no historian seriously considers the Soviet Union's surrender of territory in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk "reckless" given that the German army was already seizing that territory; he ignores the commissar system of party control that made easily replacing Trotsky as head of the Red Army not a bit "surprising"; *many* if not most major famines are man-made because the real problem is usually distribution not absolute shortage of food; and he seems to think Armenians are a "race").

He doesn't even cite the source of his title phrase "Kremlin Mountaineer," whether hoping that readers will think he made it up or supposing that readers of a 50-page introduction to Stalin will instantly recognize the allusion to Osip Mandelstam's poem.

The total absence of references is a problem because the book is so slapdash about the most basic facts. He's often right, but because the book is so sloppy, readers just enough prior knowledge to spot a few howlers could easily distrust everything he says. Its main merit is brevity, but it's still about 30% too long and $1.99 Kindle price is 50% too high.

I give this junk heap of a book 2 stars only because I agree with the author's views on Stalin and it contains enough usable parts to have made a decent book if he'd produced a second draft or the publisher had used a fact checker.

[Razvan Zamfirescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spicuiri din recenzia finala care se gaseste pe blogul meu



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Ce să zic, Johnson își pregătește bine terenul când anunță că volumașul este scris doar ca să le explice celor tineri cine a fost Stalin pentru ca amintirea sa să nu dispară în ceață și aceștia să uite de el.

Acesta fiindu-i scopul declarat, autorul se scoate instant. Și astfel purcede la scriere unei biografii în doi timpi și trei mișcări.

Nu am aflat nimic nou. Ba chiar m-am enervat că Johnson ascunde anumite lucruri (vezi venirea la putere a lui Stalin și luptele intestine ale mișcării comuniste ante și post Lenin, de exemplu) ca să-și facă viața mai ușoară de-a lungul cărții. Axat pe ciudățeniile lui Stalin și pe cruzimea lui deosebită, el schițează conturul unui individ care a marcat cu crimele sale istoria umanității, transformându-l într-un fel de bau-bau incredibil de lipsit de veridicitate. Parcă e un personaj dintr-o bandă desenată acest Stalin al lui Johnson. Sau poate doar mie-mi pare așa…

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[Tammam Aloudat]

This is the first book I read of Stalin that hasn't really concerned itself with historical context and politics events but with the personality and actions of the man himself. I liked that as almost all else I read shows Stalin as an iron figure, unemotional and unshaken. He apparently was fearful and shaken and his cruelty might come in part from that.

This little book concludes, like almost any account that isn't a blind nostalgic hallucination by an ex communist, that Stalin has been one of the worst tyrants in history. He caused untold death and pain to people he hated as well as to people who were supposedly his friends and comrades.

A few things were new to me. One is how Lenin was the one who started setting up the terror machine and how Stalin cannot even take credit for inventing it. Also how fragile he was, how scared, and how insecure.

A little book worth reading.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent, compact read that contains the usual punctilious research I expect from Johnson along with his flair to compose a very readable narrative. I've read other books about Stalin and the 20th century tyrants and this one rates high on the list for three reasons: 1. It is equitable in its treatment of the man despite the author's stated disdain for him, 2. it is captivating in the way it explains his rise to power 3. it limits the focus to the man himself instead of extrapolating on the Soviet system or other aspects of Russian history at that time.

If someone wants a very good introduction or just a concise overview of one of the 20th centuries infamous personalities then I highly recommend this book.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too short but informative all the same

Too short but informative all the same

The title is curious and never explained. We never really find out what drove Stalin or made him unique. We are told he was a dedicated Marxist and then ideology disappears altogether from the essay. The dominant impression is that Stalin was a unique kind of psychopath, but that psychology formed the background of his twisted actions, not dogma. I give it four stars because I admire any attempt to compress this story in a few pages. The fact of Stalin's life needs to be widely known and Johnson is correct that it is not.

[Ionicescu Alexandru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucrarea lui Johnson, desi de mici dimensiuni, este extrem de interesanta si de cuprinzatoare. AUtorul ne poarta prin tainele vietii lui Stalin, tatucul de Kremlin. Copilaria zbuciumata, tineretea marcata de activitatile ilegaliste, ascensiunea spre varful piramidei comuniste si maniera cruda, intransigenta prin care a pastrat puterea sunt cateva dintre temele asupra carora se apleaca Johnson. Desi uneori imperfect sau incomplet, Johnson creioneaza un Stalin usor digerabil, pe intelesul tuturor.

[Shane Hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid overview of Joseph “Soso” Stalin
Great for those who dislike 600+ page biographies of historical figures. Enough to satisfy one’s general curiosity while offering plenty of pathways for one to explore elsewhere.

[Matt Mccandless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast read. Interesting. Who knew Stalin was a bank robber.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite kind of biography, short and to the point. Paul Johnson does the work for us and condenses the life of one man to his most important actions and interactions. One of the biggest lessons in this book was how Stalin, another one of those teenager atheists, was able to get into positions of power by essentially never being stopped. The priests made a stupid decision to say he (Stalin) would be hit by lightning if he didn't fast before communion, which Stalin put to the test and promptly became atheist. What would have happened if the priests hadn't attempted to maintain discipline with such a banal threat? The tsars secret police made an error by allowing leniency on a violent and intelligent political activist who believed in his cause; their leniency because Stalin was a kind of double-agent. Intelligence and police agencies seem to regularly play with fire in these sorts of ways. Lenin waited too long to disavow (to use a modern term) Stalin and everything changed. There is also the curious case of early and unexpected deaths. When "great" men, and here I mean Napoleonic, or, to attempt to be clearer, powerful and influential men, suddenly disappear from the scene, it opens up the opportunity for other great men to alter the landscape and possibly disfigure it. What do I mean by this? Surely we all know about power vacuums, but we never seem to be prepared for them and plan accordingly, as most recently evidenced by the complete debacle that was Afghanistan, instantly reconquered by the Taliban.

A lot of mistakes were made with the handling of Stalin, but one of the most important lessons I learned is how people will carry out the most evil orders on behalf of a tyrant, even when the tyrant himself doesn't want to see it. Even when there is a general state of fear and paranoia because no one is safe, even then people will still carry out heinous orders against innocents. And that is what terrifies me the most about the potential for more Stalins, that when they appear, regular people will follow orders, up to and including the deaths of children.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The late British-born Writer Paul Johnson published a short biography of Joseph Stalin in 2014. The biography is very short. The book is only 73 pages long on the Kindle. The book covers a lot of ground in a short number of pages. Stalin lived for 74 years. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until 1953. I read the book on my Kindle. The book is very readable. The book has a prelude. The book has three long chapters in a short book about different eras in the life of Stalin. The book has a section entitled “A Note on Further Reading” (Johnson 72). The Subtitle of the book is The Kremlin Mountaineer. The title comes from the fact that Stalin was ethically from the country of Georgia. The country of Georgia is separated from Russia by mountains (Johnson 11). Before Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union, he was the commissar of nationalities a position that covered ethnic Georgians and a position Stalin held with an “iron will” (Johnson 30). The book subtitle could also be a reference to the fact that Stalin rose very fast in the leadership rank of the early Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin. Johnson believes that Stalin was one of the greatest monsters of human history, whose leadership killed at least twenty million people (Johnson 5-6). Johnson worries that Stalin is not as well-known as some very murderous leaders of the 20th Century, which worries Johnson (Johnson 5-6). Paul Johnson’s short biography of Stalin is interesting.

[Denielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was everything i thought it would be.

I started to take interest in politics late in my life but I've always had a fascination for dictators and the way they came into power. It always amazes me the type of people they were before the power and how it corrupted them over time.

I admire Stalin for his brilliance. I honestly believe that he could have stayed in power longer had he not started to lose his mind.

It seems as though a great number of these monsters lived around the same period in time and though I admire their mindset its really horrific to think they did those things to their own people.

These are things we learn from so as never to have them repeated.

[Michael Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago, I was told that Hitler was a boy scout compared to Stalin. Unfortunately, I didn't inquire further. So recently, I decided to inquire on my own. Well, I can't use "boy scout" when speaking of Hitler, but after reading this book, I will say: Stalin was probably the most brutal dictator of the 20th century. Stalin was willing to kill anyone because, in his mind, anyone could be a threat. I'm glad for this short book, because I wouldn't want to spend a few hundred pages inside that mind.

[Topher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent way to get a afternoon survey of Stalin‘s life with the breadth of the door-stopper biographies - this work seems to touch on most of the significant factors of the dictator’s background, politics, and behaviors, as well as world events and his critical contemporaries like Lenin, Hitler and Churchill.

Johnson seems to view Soviet Communism with even more of a jaundiced eye than Richard Pipes, nonetheless his skeptical tone is incisive and compelling.

[Kico Meirelles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a simple, but direct biography of Stalin. Paul Johnson is one of the best biographers that I read. He is great on extract the most relevant facts and write good, precise books. This one follows the rule. In addition, in a moment where many try to create an imaginary figure of Stalin, it is mandatory to remember the cruel tyrant he was.

[Misa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel that I’ve learned more about Lenin I’ve the years than other Soviet Union leaders, so I wanted to try this book out. It gave a fascinating account of the life of Joseph Stalin, the “man of steel”, and provided great insight on his rise to power and his relationships with Lenin and Trotsky. I recommend!

[Vlad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but informative history of Josef Stalin's life and the inner workings of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union; it's a good entry point for all those who want to know more about a cruel and dangerous man who turned out to be, alongside Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler, one of the great monsters of the XXth century.

[Alex Yauk · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an incredibly concise account of one of histories most evil men, and despite the sickening subject matter, Paul Johnson condensed an impossible amount of information into a one or two hour highly informative - and even enjoyable - read. Well done. I will be reading many more of his books. Fwiw, I bought this book on Kindle for $.99.

[Patricia Roman-Morar · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a disappointing book for me. in all honesty it felt rushed, without a proper structure. It felt like a constant back and forth, making use of a phrase that shows up way too often to not become annoying. I would have liked to find out more about the great Ukrainian famine, or even about the son he sacrificed during the war. All of these were just lightly touched upon.