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Joseph Stalin: A Life from Beginning to End

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Stalin Read On Your Computer, MAC, Smartphone, Kindle Reader, iPad, or Tablet. There can be no doubt that Stalin is one of the most notorious and controversial figures in history. He presents a puzzling paradox for both psychologists and sociologists; he was simultaneously revered, feared, loved, and hated during his lifetime. So much has been written about the life of Joseph Stalin and yet upon closer inspection, he still seems to present us with quite an enigma. His cruelty towards his political opponents and dissidents is well known, but so are his efforts to go out of his way in lifting up the most downtrodden and desperate members of Soviet society, giving them the chance that Tsarist Russia would not. Inside you will read about... ✓ A Change of Weather ✓ The Real Revolution Begins ✓ From Exile to Supreme Leader ✓ A Brave New Word ✓ Stalin’s Gambit ✓ Stalin Makes a Comeback ✓ Defending the Capitol ✓ Going West Stalin is known as a brutish dictator who struck a bargain with Hitler as if he was an old friend, yet it was this same Stalin who would almost singlehandedly save Europe from Nazi occupation. Who was Stalin? What did he really want? In this book we explore the complexities and nuances of the living, breathing conundrum who called himself Joseph Stalin. Series World War 2 Biographies Book 4

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2017

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Hourly History

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At Hourly History, we focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read.

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5 stars
326 (35%)
4 stars
296 (32%)
3 stars
225 (24%)
2 stars
50 (5%)
1 star
17 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Gary.
3,045 reviews425 followers
October 31, 2020
This is part of the Hourly History series that features famous historical figure and events. Short inexpensive books that give a good insight to fill in gaps in your historical knowledge. I have found the series interesting to read about famous people and events where my existing knowledge was vague to say the least.
This book is a very short read but gives a very good insight into the life of the most controversial figures in history. A man that was both revered and hated but never one to stay out of the public gaze.
The other big plus with these books is that it gives you a good grounding and background into the people and events and leads you to go deeper into the subject if you wish. With this book I am happy just to have the brief history of Stalin.
Profile Image for Netanella.
4,746 reviews41 followers
March 6, 2022
A decent, concise biographical short of Joseph Stalin's life, from his tumultuous youth to his equally violent life. There were several places where I disagreed with the author, and in the last chapter, the exposition morphed from past tense to present tense, which was a bit jarring, considering the topic of the book. Otherwise, this was a quick educational foray into the life of a most violent dictator.
Profile Image for Molly.
689 reviews
Read
March 15, 2018
Its hard to put into words what I thought. Was he a villain? Yes. Did he love his country? Yes. Did he do everything for his country? Not quite. So what does that make him? Read the book and send me a message. We'll share opinions
Profile Image for António Conceição.
Author 3 books10 followers
January 13, 2018
Uma pequena biografia de Stalin, inserida numa colecção de livros de História que se pretende sejam lidos numa hora. A brevidade não justifica que não haja uma única linha dedicada aos processos de Moscovo. Esta omissão, só por si, diz quase tudo sobre a qualidade da obra que não pretende ser (longe disso) apologética.
Profile Image for Anil Swarup.
Author 3 books721 followers
April 9, 2020
Another interesting book from Hourly History. Stalin lived in tumultuous times and the book does justice not only to the times but also to Stalin who was arguably one of the most prominent player in creating that tumult.
Profile Image for Readasaurus Rex.
585 reviews31 followers
March 2, 2025
Good read.

Yikes....yikes... double yikes.

“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” —Joseph Stalin

The only thing I didn't like about this book is it didn't mention how he died. Normally it's mentioned.
Profile Image for EvilWebBoy.
106 reviews1 follower
July 4, 2018
I read this book to brush up on Joseph Stalin before reading Animal Farm which is an allegory based on the Russian Revolution of 1917 (Napoleon represents Stalin)
He was an interesting man, and if he wasn't overshadowed by Hitler might have been as big a monster.
With World War II he became a hero by defeating Hitler's forces at the cost of over 20 million lives.
He probably caused over 1 million with his purges and moves to stay in power.
He turned Russia into a true world power.
Profile Image for Nikki.
163 reviews5 followers
February 7, 2017
Interesting read. Of course I've heard of Joseph Stalin but I've never officially studied about his time, policies and life when I was in school. Finally, I know, even just a bit. This Hourly History books have been making learning so fun. It's like willingly taking up Social Studies class even when you don't have to any more.
Profile Image for Royce Ratterman.
Author 13 books25 followers
November 19, 2022
Joseph Stalin was born 'Iosif Dzhugashvili' on 18 December 1878, in what is known today as Georgia. As the son of a cobbler and 'housemaid', Stalin's family struggled. His mother sent him to a school to study to become a priest, but he was eventually expelled. Rather than go home, Stalin went to work at the Tiflis Meteorological Observatory. Stalin soon found he had time to organize union strikes and demonstrations. This led the 'Secret Police' conducting a failed attempt to arrest him as he arrived at work. It was time for Stalin to move on and indulge himself deeper into Marxism.

Stalin joined the revolutionary political party, the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), during the summer of 1901, and soon found himself organizing work strikes and a demonstration which left 15 dead, 54 wounded, and 500 sent to prison, including Stalin. During his imprisonment in Siberia, he contacted Vladimir Lenin.

Stalin escaped from prison in January of 1904 and returned to the 'Georgia' area where he committed a bank robbery. With 40 dead and 50 wounded during this robbery, it was not conducive to the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party's desired public image perception they wished for people to believe. This caused a party split that "would lead to a schism between the Bolsheviks (Russian for “the Majority”) led by Lenin and Stalin, and the so-called Mensheviks, (Russian for “the Minority”) led by the rest, who disapproved of such strong-arm tactics. However, among the Bolsheviks, the robbery only served to bolster Stalin’s reputation as a man of action, and his reputation among the revolutionaries was greatly enhanced as a result."

After Stalin's wife contracted typhus and passing away on December 5th, 1907, "he confided in one of his close friends at the time, 'with her died my last warm feeling for humanity.'” Stalin would see four additional 'prison' trips to Siberia, escaping his first three 'visits' before his fourth time of confinement. "Stalin was pulled out of the gulag in 1916 for conscription into the Russian army." But... Stalin's medical checkup found him unfit for military service. So, Stalin was returned to the Gulag,

After release from prison, Stalin was appointed as 'People’s Commissar for Nationalities Affairs' within the new Soviet system. "It was during this period that Lenin would form an initial Politburo consisting of five members: Lenin himself, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Krestinksy, and Joseph Stalin." In 1922 the Head of State, Vladimir Lenin, gave Stalin the post of General Secretary. After Lenin's death a power struggle ensued, the eventually led to Joseph Stalin's rule. Stalin set about rebuilding his Soviet Empire.

Stalin implemented the collective farming systems and "sent out teams of Government Enforcers to make sure that everyone was equally submitting their resources. Secret police would show up announced at a farmer’s house and then proceed to ransack the place in search of hidden produce. Those who did not cooperate lost everything and were sent immediately to the gulags of Siberia. As the work camps of Siberia swelled, Stalin was granted with another resource that he would use to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union: slave labor."

WWII led to Adolf Hitler's 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' military invading Russia on June 22, 1941. After multitudes perished, the "German army decisively crushed at Stalingrad-" The Soviet Socialist Empire now joined the 'Allies' against Germany. The Soviet army liberated numerous Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers, including: Majdanek in July 1944, Auschwitz on 27 January 1945, and the concentration camps of Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Stutthoff, and Theresienstadt. Nazi Germany came to a full and unconditional surrender on May 7th, 1945.

These brief biographies can help the reader to decide if they wish to pursue the individual(s) and/or topics with more lengthy works.

- Quotes from this work:

“Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.” —Joseph Stalin

“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” —Joseph Stalin

“Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.” —Karl Marx

“The death of one man is tragic, but the death of thousands is a statistic.” —Joseph Stalin
Profile Image for Anirudh.
299 reviews
October 1, 2017
Stalin is known for his moustache, his role in the Second World War, and his controversial deportations. policies leading to famines and labour camps resulting in deaths of millions of people. This is a short biography of the Soviet leader, whose name translates to ‘Man of Steel’.

The reason why I didn’t say Russian leader was because Stalin was in fact not Russian and this book starts with his beginnings in Georgia as Ioseb Jugashvilli, going on to work in a factory in Tiflis, Georgia, rising up as a union leader, gets arrested and exiled to Siberia. The book then talks about his meeting with Lenin in Siberia and how he gets influenced by the Communist ideology. The book marginally touches upon the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution leading to the establishment of the new Communist Government with Stalin rising up as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. It moves on to Stalin’s role, his attempts to broker peace with Hitler in 1938, eventually leading to a war against Germany, and how his charisma urged the Soviets to fight the Germans unto death. Post his victory in Stalingrad and Second World War, it talks about Stalin’s rise in stature as he had a commanding position in the Tehran Conference with Churchill and FD Roosevelt. It then talks about the eventual decline, his administrative mishaps leading to criticism and denouncement from his successor, Nikita Khruschchev.

The book covered most highlights of Stalin’s life, if not all important aspects. How the Soviets were totally in awe of him and in a position to demand anything from public was brought out well in the book. His skills as an astute negotiator was also brought out, from his days as a union leader, then as the General Secretary of the Communist Party, his negotiations with Hitler and finally, the Tehran conference.

With that said, the book was quite short, and I think it took me barely half an hour to read the whole thing. While there is nothing wrong with it being short, it missed out on his schemes which lead to mass famines, his policy to deport ethnic Tatars to far off places such as Kyrgyzstan, among various other things leading to a death of a lot of people. Stalin, often considered as a villain in history, a biography on him is incomplete without coverage of both sides of the coin.

On that note, I would award this book a rating of three on five, where the aspects of his rise to power, his ability to negotiate and his war tactics were brought out well but not so much, for his flawed policies.
Profile Image for Young Kim.
Author 5 books22 followers
November 11, 2025
The edition I've read barely misses a flat one-star rating for obvious reasons.

I've just read the 2016-edition, and this one was like a rough draft.

There were countless grammatical errors with weird lines hard to enjoy, not to mention some crucial facts like the month of the end of World War 1 (November, 1918, not May) indicating the writer who had not been qualified to handle the topic was even confused between the months of the end of WW1 and WW2. And it was "Eastern" German land the Allied leaders gave to Poland after the war was over, not Western Germany.

What was the publisher doing missing all these before the actual publication? I certainly hope most of, if not all, these errors have been revised and edited by now.

Despite the disappointing quality of the book, the story still gives the readers some useful info and lessons.

As long as these errors are edited, the book will be another fine work in the fun collection of Hourly History for the readers to enjoy learning history in brief and relaxing way.
Profile Image for Sahifa.
96 reviews1 follower
March 5, 2018
Just finished reading a brief biography of Russian General Joseph Stalin. He was a Bolshevik revolutionary who succeeded Lenin and further tried to imply the lenin-Marxist ideology to USSR.
Stalin was one of the Allies in World war-2 and this booklet succeeds in giving a brief and concise insight to the other side of the world war -2. I always considered Hitler a villian and main perparator of World War -2 however thanks to hourly history ,now I know Stalin was not far behind. Some incidents mentioned here were heart-wrenching and extremely saddening such as the atrocities on soviet citizens of Leningrad. The bitter truth is that there is no win for the civillians in any war. Despite of the fact that the USSR would be considered a winner in World War -2, the Russians lost a great deal.
I have read several booklets from Hourly History. They are available on kindle for free and are great to introduce oneself to the world history
Profile Image for Udit Nair.
396 reviews79 followers
June 11, 2019
Clearly Soviet union grew leaps and bounds under him and took the status of global superpower. But unfortunately the cost which was borne by humans of Soviet union is simply not worth for the status. It doesn't matter whether you follow right,left or centre ideology, dictatorship will lead to misery only. This can be amplified when you see Mussolini from right wing , Stalin from left wing or Hitler from any of those. It's important in political systems that an individual doesn't gather enough discretion to rule out opponents or voices within the same faction.
Profile Image for Joseph Allen Paine.
34 reviews2 followers
January 8, 2021
Good storyline, but several typos.

Hourly History always has well researched and written historical accounts. However, this one included enough typos to make it a distraction and lose some editing credibility--especially when a Chapter title itself has a typo. It should not stop others from reading this book because the information is factually accurate, but take the errors with a grain of salt and report them as seen. The editors are notified and will hopefully fix the typos in the near future.
Profile Image for Jonathan Kennedy.
3 reviews
June 10, 2023
Stalin, a life till the end o WWII

The description of Stalin’s life during WWII gives the reader a good measured sinopsis of his role in it.
Unfortunately it does not address in a similar proportion his before and (specially) after life leaving the reader with practically no knowledge of the man’s biographical data which the book’s title promises to deliver: “A life from BEGINNING to END…”
For future editions, maybe add a few more pages on the aftermath of his postwar life, might not be such a bad idea (?)
6 reviews
September 14, 2020
Excellent coverage of the man who was Joseph Stalin! I found that the quotes from Stalin himself at the start of each chapter were very telling. His saying "In the Red Army, to retreat took more courage than to advance." reveals Stalin's expectations for his soldiers, and saying "If we don't allow them to have ideas, why allow them to have guns?" explains his expectations for the Russian people. Those two quotes sum up Stalin, the man, in a very few words.
105 reviews1 follower
June 29, 2017
Haunting view of a powerful leader

Joseph Stalin was just taught to me as a third figure of the "Big Three" in WWII history. Also about his part in helping create the USSR and Heston up the Cold War. This book was very informative and interesting. It has given me an itch to scratch and delve more into the life and mind of Joseph Stalin.
3 reviews
November 5, 2020
Very impressed by reading this biography and tose quotes that portrait that moment in history, such " British gave time, USA gave money while Soviets gave blood". Just in few months 4.3 million russians died. At the end of WWII, about 20 million of this country died. So much blood, indeed. Volgogrado became the turning point to defeat Hitler and to change the power balance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ed Barton.
1,303 reviews
October 11, 2021
A Complex Man

Stalin was as ruthless and brutal as any Fascist dictator, and as aggressive in moving the Soviet Union into the ranks of world economic and military superpowers as he was in fighting the Germans. Calculating, paranoid and extraordinarily complex, this book will give you a little taste of Stalin as a man and leader. An interesting book
Profile Image for Janeen H.
9 reviews
March 15, 2022
Great Series for Short Profiles

I am really enjoying this series! They give a great biographical summaries of historical leaders that I wouldn’t take the time to read a long biography for. I enjoyed reading about their background before they were involved in history making decisions. And takes only about an hour to listen to each one!
350 reviews4 followers
April 28, 2024
Joseph Stalin was infamous for the great purge in which over a million people whom he considered a threat were executed. Also, the Gulag or forced labor camps expanded considerably under his rule.

I have visited the Stalin museum in Gori, Georgia and saw the modest hut where he spent the first four years of his life. The book writes about his humble beginnings and gradual rise to power.
Profile Image for Tanmay Meher.
Author 1 book4 followers
February 27, 2018
Crash course on syalin

It gives you a a fair idea about Stalin, especially who and how about this Russian reformer. Needless to say that he was one of the greatest threat to Hitler.
3 reviews
June 22, 2018
Concise and informative

Most people know Stalin as just another dictator in the world especially when most are focussed on Hitler but this book opened new doors into the minds of one of the greatest dictators of all time and the vast impact he had on the world we live even today
Profile Image for Marshall D. Whitaker.
45 reviews
May 2, 2019
Wets The Appetite

This history cannot even scratch the surface of Stalin's life. What it does accomplish is stoking the fires of curiosity to discover more. Well written and easy to read this work fits well in this series.
Profile Image for Rochelle.
155 reviews
September 19, 2020
This book in the series also holds up to mark. Reading it gives you all the basic information you need.

Such a strange man Stalin was; a dictator, a hero, an oppressor; most importantly a revolutionary who changed the course of history!
Profile Image for Sean.
1,003 reviews22 followers
October 31, 2020
A very short and interesting look at Russia during the world war. I was hoping for a bit more meat about Stalin but in total it was okay. I was hoping for more information of Stalin and his death as well as his powerful abilities that made him and the Soviets so powerful
10 reviews
December 22, 2020
The book is a very interesting and informative, although critical, overview of Stalin's struggles, accomplishments and other aspects of his life. He himself was a very controversial figure, and his controversial attitude towards people, politics and foreign affairs was described in the book.
60 reviews
December 20, 2022
BETtR DEAD

What a beast this man was I learnt a lot from this boo
k an enjoyed reading it o itne point that was not told that is the BRITISH artic convoys to help Russia keep going it cost the lives of hundreds of sailors their lives
20 reviews
March 12, 2023
Good Summary of Stalin's Rise

This is a good easy read. It was a good summary of Stalin's life up to WW II, but came to too quick of an end during the later part of the war with virtually nothing about the post WW II period.
Profile Image for Ibrahim970400.
46 reviews
September 6, 2025
Loved the book, for someone never read about Stalin. Although it was rather ambiguous in regard his childhood. With that been said I highly encourage to read this book to start to learn a synapse of the man of steel
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews

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