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The Stalin Era
Only Anna Louise Strong could have written this book. Few, if any, in America today [i.e. 1956] can speak with greater authority about “the Stalin Era,” or with closer or more intimate knowledge of its inner workings and motivations.
She went there first in 1921 to help bring relief from the American Friends Service to the Volga famine sufferers. She was there during the agonizing years when, seemingly by sheer will, the Soviet people lifted their vast country out of the mire of medievalism into the front rank among modern nations. She was there, as founder and editor of Moscow News, checking the daily progress of industrialization, the collectivization of agriculture, the building of new cities, the release of ancient cultures. She was there during “the Great Madness” following the assassination of Sergei Kirov, observing from only a few feet away the trials of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and others, listening to their confessions and rationalizations. She was there when war exploded, when the Mannheim Line was smashed in the Soviet-Finnish War, and when the Soviet Armies thwarted Hitler’s design to seize Latvia, Lithuania and Esthonia [sic]. She was there, too, when Poland was liberated, and the final seizure of Berlin completed under the assault of the Red Army.
She met Stalin face to face, and saw his methods in group discussion. She interviewed scores of the foremost leaders of the Soviet Union, China, and other countries.
In 1949, this great American woman, a lifelong friend of the Soviet Union and staunch advocate of American-Soviet collaboration for peace, was denounced as a spy by the GPU and expelled from the USSR. This would have embittered anyone less serenely conscious of complete innocence, or less sure of eventual exoneration. In 1955, following the long series of revelations of criminal frameups of innocent people, in both high and low places in the Soviet Union, by the political police, the Soviet Government publicly withdrew its accusation and vindicated Miss Strong.
Rising above any subjective feelings, the author of this book has given us the history of one of the most dynamic and world-changing eras of history, as she saw it and endured it, from the matchless creative urge of the Five-Year Plans to what she has called “The Great Madness” of the late thirties, and to Stalin’s death and beyond.
No American concerned with the future of his country and of the world, can afford to miss this vital and timely book.
—from the flaps of the dust jacket
pre-ISBN edition
She went there first in 1921 to help bring relief from the American Friends Service to the Volga famine sufferers. She was there during the agonizing years when, seemingly by sheer will, the Soviet people lifted their vast country out of the mire of medievalism into the front rank among modern nations. She was there, as founder and editor of Moscow News, checking the daily progress of industrialization, the collectivization of agriculture, the building of new cities, the release of ancient cultures. She was there during “the Great Madness” following the assassination of Sergei Kirov, observing from only a few feet away the trials of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and others, listening to their confessions and rationalizations. She was there when war exploded, when the Mannheim Line was smashed in the Soviet-Finnish War, and when the Soviet Armies thwarted Hitler’s design to seize Latvia, Lithuania and Esthonia [sic]. She was there, too, when Poland was liberated, and the final seizure of Berlin completed under the assault of the Red Army.
She met Stalin face to face, and saw his methods in group discussion. She interviewed scores of the foremost leaders of the Soviet Union, China, and other countries.
In 1949, this great American woman, a lifelong friend of the Soviet Union and staunch advocate of American-Soviet collaboration for peace, was denounced as a spy by the GPU and expelled from the USSR. This would have embittered anyone less serenely conscious of complete innocence, or less sure of eventual exoneration. In 1955, following the long series of revelations of criminal frameups of innocent people, in both high and low places in the Soviet Union, by the political police, the Soviet Government publicly withdrew its accusation and vindicated Miss Strong.
Rising above any subjective feelings, the author of this book has given us the history of one of the most dynamic and world-changing eras of history, as she saw it and endured it, from the matchless creative urge of the Five-Year Plans to what she has called “The Great Madness” of the late thirties, and to Stalin’s death and beyond.
No American concerned with the future of his country and of the world, can afford to miss this vital and timely book.
—from the flaps of the dust jacket
pre-ISBN edition
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Anna Louise Strong
85 books80 followersAmerican journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 29, 2021
An even-handed but not dispassionate account of the unprecedented accomplishments and tragic missteps of the USSR by an American journalist who experienced it first-hand. Very engaging.
September 11, 2017
Gayet iyi kitap, genellikle Stalin'in tarafında durmakta yalnız yaptığı hataları da anlatmaya çalışıyor.
December 21, 2017
La politica dell'Unione era di lasciar sviluppare tutte le culture nazionali, mentre l'economia si sviluppava in direzione del socialismo. Ma 85 piccole nazionalità non avevano neppure un alfabeto, per non parlare dei libri. Il linguaggio di questi popoli fu elaborato da scienziati, e a Mosca si cominciò a stampare libri in cento lingue, finché la produzione libraria dell'Urss, alla fine del primo piano quinquennale, superò il numero dei libri stampati in Francia, Germania e Inghilterra prese insieme. Ma i libri non furono che una delle forze rinnovatrici: assieme ad essi ci furono le nuove leggi, la scienza, l'arte."
[... ] La cosa più bella che c'è nella vita - disse - è il lavoro. No, non il lavoro semplicemente: la creazione! Proprio in questo tempo, in cui noi viviamo, c'è una possibilità di creare, senza confini e senza limiti.
[... ] La cosa più bella che c'è nella vita - disse - è il lavoro. No, non il lavoro semplicemente: la creazione! Proprio in questo tempo, in cui noi viviamo, c'è una possibilità di creare, senza confini e senza limiti.
December 7, 2025
Sovyetler Birliği’nin en sarsıcı ve tartışmalara yol açan dönemine dair okuduğum en doyurucu kitabın bir ABD doğumlu gazeteci olması şaşırtıcı gelebilir. Ama devrim günlerini en canlı anlatan kitabın da John Reed’e ait olduğunu unutmamak lazım.
Strong’un Stalin döneminde tutuklananlardan biri olması, objektifliğini hissettiğim kitabını daha da değerli kılıyor.
Tarımda kollektifleştirme, toplu tutuklamalar, Hitler Almanyası ile saldırmazlık antlaşması, Büyük Anayurt Savaşı, savaş sonrası, barış taarruzları, ölümü ve Krusçev’in politikaları ve Stalin’e dair konuşmasını gibi tüm dünyada tartışılan konuları es geçmeyen kitabı, bütünsel, tarihsel ve kapsamlı bir bakış sunuyor.
Kitabın satışı yok, Nadir Kitap’taki son bir kaçından birini aldım. Yeniden basılmaması büyük kayıp.
Strong’un Stalin döneminde tutuklananlardan biri olması, objektifliğini hissettiğim kitabını daha da değerli kılıyor.
Tarımda kollektifleştirme, toplu tutuklamalar, Hitler Almanyası ile saldırmazlık antlaşması, Büyük Anayurt Savaşı, savaş sonrası, barış taarruzları, ölümü ve Krusçev’in politikaları ve Stalin’e dair konuşmasını gibi tüm dünyada tartışılan konuları es geçmeyen kitabı, bütünsel, tarihsel ve kapsamlı bir bakış sunuyor.
Kitabın satışı yok, Nadir Kitap’taki son bir kaçından birini aldım. Yeniden basılmaması büyük kayıp.
May 18, 2024
Strong wrote with a mixture of clarity of vision and historical trajectory which she combined with a deep knowledge of Soviet society. This has been the most humanizing account of the Soviet people for the first half of their existence.
February 13, 2025
Very good book about stalin with interesting personal stories and facts
August 16, 2025
bu adam benim babam.
August 1, 2026
Book i read : ஸ்டாலின் சகாப்தம் by Puthumai pathipagam
February 10, 2026
Absolutely wonderful book.
Back in the 1990s I was reading everything by Noam Chomsky that I could get my hands on, and I listened to his lectures on cassette tape constantly. I still have whole passages from them memorized.
Although Chomsky is an anarchist and extremely critical of the US government, his views on the USSR were practically indistinguishable from those of the state department. Personally I didn’t quite share his hostility towards Marx and Marxism, but I did more or less accept his view on Lenin, Stalin and the Soviet Union in general.
It never even occurred to me a question this view on Stalin until I came across Gabriel Rockhill and Domenico Lasurdo. I mean, sure, let’s say Stalin was the demonic monster everybody says he was… and let’s ignore the fact that everything they said about him is pretty much a carbon copy of everything they’re saying about Vladimir Putin or the People’s Republic of China… What choice did Stalin have in 1929 but to proceed as he did?
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us.”
— Joseph Stalin, speech to industrial managers, February 4, 1931
In this book, the author explains exactly how it was that the USSR make good the distance, and managed to crush the Nazi threat. She doesn’t gloss over the crimes or the excesses of the era, but she does put them in context, all the while creating a fast paced, tremendously, enjoyable narrative.
Back in the 1990s I was reading everything by Noam Chomsky that I could get my hands on, and I listened to his lectures on cassette tape constantly. I still have whole passages from them memorized.
Although Chomsky is an anarchist and extremely critical of the US government, his views on the USSR were practically indistinguishable from those of the state department. Personally I didn’t quite share his hostility towards Marx and Marxism, but I did more or less accept his view on Lenin, Stalin and the Soviet Union in general.
It never even occurred to me a question this view on Stalin until I came across Gabriel Rockhill and Domenico Lasurdo. I mean, sure, let’s say Stalin was the demonic monster everybody says he was… and let’s ignore the fact that everything they said about him is pretty much a carbon copy of everything they’re saying about Vladimir Putin or the People’s Republic of China… What choice did Stalin have in 1929 but to proceed as he did?
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us.”
— Joseph Stalin, speech to industrial managers, February 4, 1931
In this book, the author explains exactly how it was that the USSR make good the distance, and managed to crush the Nazi threat. She doesn’t gloss over the crimes or the excesses of the era, but she does put them in context, all the while creating a fast paced, tremendously, enjoyable narrative.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews