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Stalin: Passage to Revolution
A spellbinding new biography of Stalin in his formative years
This is the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin from his birth to the October Revolution of 1917, a panoramic and often chilling account of how an impoverished, idealistic youth from the provinces of tsarist Russia was transformed into a cunning and fearsome outlaw who would one day become one of the twentieth century's most ruthless dictators.
In this monumental book, Ronald Grigor Suny sheds light on the least understood years of Stalin's career, bringing to life the turbulent world in which he lived and the extraordinary historical events that shaped him. Suny draws on a wealth of new archival evidence from Stalin's early years in the Caucasus to chart the psychological metamorphosis of the young Stalin, taking readers from his boyhood as a Georgian nationalist and romantic poet, through his harsh years of schooling, to his commitment to violent engagement in the underground movement to topple the tsarist autocracy. Stalin emerges as an ambitious climber within the Bolshevik ranks, a resourceful leader of a small terrorist band, and a writer and thinker who was deeply engaged with some of the most incendiary debates of his time.
A landmark achievement, Stalin paints an unforgettable portrait of a driven young man who abandoned his religious faith to become a skilled political operative and a single-minded and ruthless rebel.
This is the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin from his birth to the October Revolution of 1917, a panoramic and often chilling account of how an impoverished, idealistic youth from the provinces of tsarist Russia was transformed into a cunning and fearsome outlaw who would one day become one of the twentieth century's most ruthless dictators.
In this monumental book, Ronald Grigor Suny sheds light on the least understood years of Stalin's career, bringing to life the turbulent world in which he lived and the extraordinary historical events that shaped him. Suny draws on a wealth of new archival evidence from Stalin's early years in the Caucasus to chart the psychological metamorphosis of the young Stalin, taking readers from his boyhood as a Georgian nationalist and romantic poet, through his harsh years of schooling, to his commitment to violent engagement in the underground movement to topple the tsarist autocracy. Stalin emerges as an ambitious climber within the Bolshevik ranks, a resourceful leader of a small terrorist band, and a writer and thinker who was deeply engaged with some of the most incendiary debates of his time.
A landmark achievement, Stalin paints an unforgettable portrait of a driven young man who abandoned his religious faith to become a skilled political operative and a single-minded and ruthless rebel.
856 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2020
88 people are currently reading
1008 people want to read
About the author
Ronald Grigor Suny
42 books53 followersRonald Grigor Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and professor emeritus of political science and history at the University of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
July 21, 2021
Im not in the position to compare this biography to other Stalin biographies, but I would still confidently recommend it to anyone looking for one. Suny is a highly capable historian who takes socialist thought and marxism seriously and on its own terms (not a given in the field of soviet history).
In a recent talk Suny actually explained the book as his attempt to write a history of the pre-1917 revolutionary socialist movement in the Caucasus, the fact that he organizes it around a biography of Stalin is essentially just to get more people to read it. In so far as it has a central thesis, it’s about showing how the greater context Stalin was surrounded in at various points in his life (Georgia, the Caucasus, exile, his schooling, clandestine reading circles, the party) shaped his development as a person, organizer and revolutionary. The fact that it aims to be two huge book projects in one means it is LONG, but really worth reading. He deals pretty clearly with internal debate within the RSDLP and its Georgian section, and takes care to really explain the unique development character of Georgian menshevism. Another highlight of the book are the several chapters about 1905 revolution in Georgia and in Azerbaijan (both places where Stalin was an active participant in the revolution). Most material on 1905 focuses pretty heavily on st Petersburg and Moscow to the detriment of the story in the empire's borderlands.
The best way to broadly characterize this book would be to compare it to the first volume of the Deutscher trotsky biography, obviously because it’s a big undertaking that tells the history of the party through one of the leading figures, but similarly because it can serve the same function as a way in for young or new socialists to learn about the history of the RSDLP before 1917. The only real downside to this book besides the length is that Suny’s narrative here stops immediately after the revolution, and it feels a little cut-off (of course, if it went longer it would make the book longer, which contradicts my first complaint. but thats dialectics), so here’s hoping he has another two volumes in the works.
In a recent talk Suny actually explained the book as his attempt to write a history of the pre-1917 revolutionary socialist movement in the Caucasus, the fact that he organizes it around a biography of Stalin is essentially just to get more people to read it. In so far as it has a central thesis, it’s about showing how the greater context Stalin was surrounded in at various points in his life (Georgia, the Caucasus, exile, his schooling, clandestine reading circles, the party) shaped his development as a person, organizer and revolutionary. The fact that it aims to be two huge book projects in one means it is LONG, but really worth reading. He deals pretty clearly with internal debate within the RSDLP and its Georgian section, and takes care to really explain the unique development character of Georgian menshevism. Another highlight of the book are the several chapters about 1905 revolution in Georgia and in Azerbaijan (both places where Stalin was an active participant in the revolution). Most material on 1905 focuses pretty heavily on st Petersburg and Moscow to the detriment of the story in the empire's borderlands.
The best way to broadly characterize this book would be to compare it to the first volume of the Deutscher trotsky biography, obviously because it’s a big undertaking that tells the history of the party through one of the leading figures, but similarly because it can serve the same function as a way in for young or new socialists to learn about the history of the RSDLP before 1917. The only real downside to this book besides the length is that Suny’s narrative here stops immediately after the revolution, and it feels a little cut-off (of course, if it went longer it would make the book longer, which contradicts my first complaint. but thats dialectics), so here’s hoping he has another two volumes in the works.
September 4, 2021
This tome was magisterial in size and took me months to finish. I was searching for a Stalin biography for some time by someone who was not an anti-communist, had left-wing sympathies, but wrote with a sort of critical academic detachment, and not a hagiographer for whom defending an individual person was synonymous with defending a particular set of political convictions. Granted this book by Suny focuses on the life of Stalin leading up to the October Revolution, so its focus is not on the years when Stalin was in power. That will be for another time, and I’m interested in exploring some of the biographical material that Suny comments on at the end of his book. Suny’s books have been published by Verso and he has pieces in Jacobin to give some rough sense of his political sympathies (for better or worse). Suny’s grandfather, Grikor Suni, was a famous Armenian composer, and a communist who was part of the Dashnaktsutyun (a socialist party of the Second International) and then later in Philadelphia, he joined Harajdimakan, a communist party that was pro-Soviet and pro-Armenian. Suny’s grandfather denounced the Stalinist purges and was thrown out of communist organizing circles, and his music was not played in Armenia until after the death of Stalin. Suny’s father was not a communist, but he remained sympathetic to the Soviet Union his entire life (you can read more about Suny’s personal reflections in this interview).
Suny jokes that throughout his academic career he was labelled as a Marxist in the US but a ‘bourgeois falsifier of history’ in Georgia during Soviet years.
This book focuses as much, if not more, on the theoretical arguments, speeches, and publications of the Bolsheviks and other social democratic factions they were arguing with leading up to the revolution, and for that reason is very useful reading for anyone interested in socialist history. While 'social democracy' is an embarrassing term in some radical circles today, it is often commented that this was the term Marx identified with; it's interesting to see that all Bolsheviks including Lenin and Stalin also identified with that term early on, even if it was later abandoned and scorned.
I was most fascinated by Stalin’s years as a seminary student, and his mother’s lifelong religious piety. It was in seminary that Stalin first encountered political radicals and became involved in radical reading groups (I think Roland Boer has written rather extensively on this part of Stalin’s life and the radical politics that was ubiquitous among young seminary students then).
I think the most important things I came away with from this book is the intellectual capacities and voracious reading habits of the young Stalin which is often downplayed in popular contemporary notions of Stalin today, as well as Stalin’s sincere faith in socialist theory and praxis (Suny often refers to Stalin as a ‘true believer’) which does not align with certain accounts of Stalin’s life where he merely sees socialism opportunistically as a means for personal gain and power. Possessing sincere socialist convictions is not mutually exclusive with a predilection for maintaining personal grudges and fostering certain cold and brutal values in one’s political life and decisions. Suny focuses on how intimately Stalin and Lenin worked together before the outbreak of the October Revolution and I think this is also another aspect that it’s downplayed by socialists who are embarrassed by the later violence of the Stalin regime. There's actually quite a bit about Lenin in this book also. I was really fascinated by various radicals who were relatively unimpressed upon meeting the small man in person for the first time and how uncharismatic they found him to be. The comparisons of Lenin with St. Paul really do run deep; I'm thinking of 2 Corinthians 10:10: For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
It’s fascinating that Stalin, in so many ways, was quiet, reserved, often introverted, but simultaneously very confident, decisive; disliked by a wide variety of fellow comrades, but often liked by common everyday folk he encountered in various remote areas in Russia while in exile. This of course was not always the case; he once made some scornful anti-Semitic comments among fellow workers he was trying to organize with, and he was taken aback that his comments upset them. Stalin often justified his anti-Semitism and crudeness as something that simply stemmed from his close identification with the proletariat, sort of like the ‘dirtbag left’ today.
There was also a decent amount of material in this book on various Muslim populations in Georgia and Russia that I found very fascinating and would like to read more about sometime in the future. This is an excerpt about an illegal press Ketskhoveli (who introduced Stalin to Marxism) had set up in a space rented from a Muslim family:
“Muslims, who made up the lowest paid and least skilled oil-field workers, remained indifferent to or ignorant of the socialist message. Living in their own parts of the city, Muslims had almost no contact with the police or state officials. Few knew Russian, and socialist propaganda was not available in their languages. Ketskhoveli took advantage of the relative isolation of the Muslims when he built a second, larger press, housing it in the home of an old Muslim who had no idea that his apartment was being used for illegal purposes. The press published in Georgian as well as Russian. Tied both to Iskra and the popular Russian-based Social Democratic paper, Iuzhnyi rabochii (Southern Worker), the Baku Social Democrats made their press available to both. This nonsectarian generosity infuriated Lenin, who advised them to break off all relations with newspapers other than Iskra. The Baku comrades soon obliged. Their secret press, dubbed “Nina,” became legendary in Marxist circles.”
It was really interesting to read about the lengths to which radicals in Czarist Russia had to stay below the radar of state surveillance, the various safehouses and secret meetings they had to engage in, the various prison terms they experienced, and the intricate campaigns and agitation they carried out during that time. That environment was a significant part of the paranoia that Stalin would foster and later bring with him into power. There's also a great story of Stalin, in an uncharacteristically reckless manner, attending a masquerade ball held to raise money for Pravda and being arrested by the police. I found the whole thing of fundraising balls extremely unexpected, fascinating and amusing. Anyway Stalin was imprisoned and then exiled to Turukhansk, three thousand miles from Saint Petersburg. There’s a brief line that Suny inserts into one of his paragraphs much earlier in the book, in the section of Stalin's time in seminary, and I think it summarizes a lot of Stalin’s early life: “If the seminary was a school for revolutionaries, prison was their university.”
Anyway, this review was more than ten sentences, but it was a very long book, so I will excuse myself this time.
Suny jokes that throughout his academic career he was labelled as a Marxist in the US but a ‘bourgeois falsifier of history’ in Georgia during Soviet years.
This book focuses as much, if not more, on the theoretical arguments, speeches, and publications of the Bolsheviks and other social democratic factions they were arguing with leading up to the revolution, and for that reason is very useful reading for anyone interested in socialist history. While 'social democracy' is an embarrassing term in some radical circles today, it is often commented that this was the term Marx identified with; it's interesting to see that all Bolsheviks including Lenin and Stalin also identified with that term early on, even if it was later abandoned and scorned.
I was most fascinated by Stalin’s years as a seminary student, and his mother’s lifelong religious piety. It was in seminary that Stalin first encountered political radicals and became involved in radical reading groups (I think Roland Boer has written rather extensively on this part of Stalin’s life and the radical politics that was ubiquitous among young seminary students then).
I think the most important things I came away with from this book is the intellectual capacities and voracious reading habits of the young Stalin which is often downplayed in popular contemporary notions of Stalin today, as well as Stalin’s sincere faith in socialist theory and praxis (Suny often refers to Stalin as a ‘true believer’) which does not align with certain accounts of Stalin’s life where he merely sees socialism opportunistically as a means for personal gain and power. Possessing sincere socialist convictions is not mutually exclusive with a predilection for maintaining personal grudges and fostering certain cold and brutal values in one’s political life and decisions. Suny focuses on how intimately Stalin and Lenin worked together before the outbreak of the October Revolution and I think this is also another aspect that it’s downplayed by socialists who are embarrassed by the later violence of the Stalin regime. There's actually quite a bit about Lenin in this book also. I was really fascinated by various radicals who were relatively unimpressed upon meeting the small man in person for the first time and how uncharismatic they found him to be. The comparisons of Lenin with St. Paul really do run deep; I'm thinking of 2 Corinthians 10:10: For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
It’s fascinating that Stalin, in so many ways, was quiet, reserved, often introverted, but simultaneously very confident, decisive; disliked by a wide variety of fellow comrades, but often liked by common everyday folk he encountered in various remote areas in Russia while in exile. This of course was not always the case; he once made some scornful anti-Semitic comments among fellow workers he was trying to organize with, and he was taken aback that his comments upset them. Stalin often justified his anti-Semitism and crudeness as something that simply stemmed from his close identification with the proletariat, sort of like the ‘dirtbag left’ today.
There was also a decent amount of material in this book on various Muslim populations in Georgia and Russia that I found very fascinating and would like to read more about sometime in the future. This is an excerpt about an illegal press Ketskhoveli (who introduced Stalin to Marxism) had set up in a space rented from a Muslim family:
“Muslims, who made up the lowest paid and least skilled oil-field workers, remained indifferent to or ignorant of the socialist message. Living in their own parts of the city, Muslims had almost no contact with the police or state officials. Few knew Russian, and socialist propaganda was not available in their languages. Ketskhoveli took advantage of the relative isolation of the Muslims when he built a second, larger press, housing it in the home of an old Muslim who had no idea that his apartment was being used for illegal purposes. The press published in Georgian as well as Russian. Tied both to Iskra and the popular Russian-based Social Democratic paper, Iuzhnyi rabochii (Southern Worker), the Baku Social Democrats made their press available to both. This nonsectarian generosity infuriated Lenin, who advised them to break off all relations with newspapers other than Iskra. The Baku comrades soon obliged. Their secret press, dubbed “Nina,” became legendary in Marxist circles.”
It was really interesting to read about the lengths to which radicals in Czarist Russia had to stay below the radar of state surveillance, the various safehouses and secret meetings they had to engage in, the various prison terms they experienced, and the intricate campaigns and agitation they carried out during that time. That environment was a significant part of the paranoia that Stalin would foster and later bring with him into power. There's also a great story of Stalin, in an uncharacteristically reckless manner, attending a masquerade ball held to raise money for Pravda and being arrested by the police. I found the whole thing of fundraising balls extremely unexpected, fascinating and amusing. Anyway Stalin was imprisoned and then exiled to Turukhansk, three thousand miles from Saint Petersburg. There’s a brief line that Suny inserts into one of his paragraphs much earlier in the book, in the section of Stalin's time in seminary, and I think it summarizes a lot of Stalin’s early life: “If the seminary was a school for revolutionaries, prison was their university.”
Anyway, this review was more than ten sentences, but it was a very long book, so I will excuse myself this time.
April 22, 2024
Great work indeed. Ronald Suny always writes fascinating books on the history of the South Caucasus and the Russian Empire.
I feel that this is the only work that gives an absolutely detailed and non-exhaustive account of how the ''Breaking Bad'' of Ioseb Jugashvili has happened throughout the revolutionary years of the revolutionary Russia. The book offers a variety of ideas, not a classic psychobiography, but a different approach, telling the story of a boy in the context of the history of the region and the revolutionary-Marxist movement in Russia. Thanks to the author, I never tire of reading his works.
I feel that this is the only work that gives an absolutely detailed and non-exhaustive account of how the ''Breaking Bad'' of Ioseb Jugashvili has happened throughout the revolutionary years of the revolutionary Russia. The book offers a variety of ideas, not a classic psychobiography, but a different approach, telling the story of a boy in the context of the history of the region and the revolutionary-Marxist movement in Russia. Thanks to the author, I never tire of reading his works.
February 2, 2021
Well I finished it. I know I am in the minority here, but I found this really dull and far too long.
First 20% early life (interesting)
Middle 60% he went here, wrote this, argued with this guy, was arrested and then repeat till I can't feel my lips.
Last 20% 1917 and the formation of the USSR (interesting, but i was burned out so I didn't enjoy it.)
First 20% early life (interesting)
Middle 60% he went here, wrote this, argued with this guy, was arrested and then repeat till I can't feel my lips.
Last 20% 1917 and the formation of the USSR (interesting, but i was burned out so I didn't enjoy it.)
April 6, 2023
While reading reviews of Stephen Kotkin's book, Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928, I came across some reference to Ronald Suny's work. In particular, a Jacobin review made a case that a more sympathetic/understanding biography of Stalin can be found in Suny's work. Having read both books, I agree with this assessment.
There's value in both books. Kotkin's book is a great historical introduction to the political and geopolitical (think international power politics, grand strategy) of the time that Stalin was born; the pre-WW1 era, the events that lead up to WW1, and the impact of WW1 on Russia. One of Kotkin's arguments is that, at least for the early period of Stalin's life, these geopolitical events allowed him to play an outsized role considering his humble origins. So, it follows that a book on such history makes sense. The early days of Stalin get attention, but the content on the world around him feels far more complete than the life Stalin or the history of the Russian socialist underground.
In contrast, Suny's book more closely looks at the life of early Stalin and the nuances/debates within the Russian socialist/Marxist movement. For me, the intricacies and debates within the socialist movement - within Georgia and Russia - was fascinating to read about. There is a lot to focus in on, and if Suny's account is to be believed, there are very compelling reasons why the Bolsheviks ultimately won out to all the other political alternatives (including competing socialist parties) - ultimately, they were the only ones with the resolve to actually take power. Suny does a fun thing, where he'll note that a source is dubious, but quote it anyways to provide some contrast to Suny's own (seemingly) reasonable analysis.
There is a lot to pick up on in Suny's book. There are standout chapters, where you can tell the Suny himself was invested in a topic that was relevant to Stalin's life. In particular, the nationality question stands out (The Expert) - how should a new state be formed? How does an internationalist movement deal with nationalism/nations? These are fascinating questions that still do not have a definite answer, and it is clear that many innovative and interesting solutions (or half-solutions) were discussed by Marxists throughout Europe.
One of the overall positives of Suny's book, particularly in contrast to Kotkin, is the representation of the positive possibility of the Russian socialist movement and the Russia revolution. There was a lot of excitement and genuine energy towards creating something better. There were real debates, compromises and efforts to imagine a fundamentally new world. Kotkin has more of a dim view on communist ambitions, and makes an argument that communism itself was the cause of so much suffering under Stalin. It's hard to argue with Kotkin, considering Stalin in many ways represented communism, but is it really that simple? Suny does not make such an argument, and instead leaves more to the reader to determine their own perspective on Communist/Marxist ideology - although he does acknowledge the romanticism and determinism of the Marxists.
Suny's psychological analysis of Stalin, in the Conclusion, is compelling. He writes about Stalin's history as a fugitive, working underground, being persecuted by the Tsarist police, his use of violence in dealing with traitors/spies, and his eventual participation in the civil war. Stalin’s experience of politics, alongside many of his comrades, was also an experience of war and warfare. "The logic of war - we versus them, destroying the enemy while preserving your own - becomes fundamental to [Stalin's] thinking. Once politics or any other conflict is re-conceived as war, the most extreme means, including killing ones' enemies and those who might support them even in the future, is legitimized and normalized." Perhaps a simple idea, but it rings true. I think this is where Kotkin and Suny's arguments line up: it was Stalin's experience, both underground, during the civil war and in power that forged his "politics as war" mindset.
There's value in both books. Kotkin's book is a great historical introduction to the political and geopolitical (think international power politics, grand strategy) of the time that Stalin was born; the pre-WW1 era, the events that lead up to WW1, and the impact of WW1 on Russia. One of Kotkin's arguments is that, at least for the early period of Stalin's life, these geopolitical events allowed him to play an outsized role considering his humble origins. So, it follows that a book on such history makes sense. The early days of Stalin get attention, but the content on the world around him feels far more complete than the life Stalin or the history of the Russian socialist underground.
In contrast, Suny's book more closely looks at the life of early Stalin and the nuances/debates within the Russian socialist/Marxist movement. For me, the intricacies and debates within the socialist movement - within Georgia and Russia - was fascinating to read about. There is a lot to focus in on, and if Suny's account is to be believed, there are very compelling reasons why the Bolsheviks ultimately won out to all the other political alternatives (including competing socialist parties) - ultimately, they were the only ones with the resolve to actually take power. Suny does a fun thing, where he'll note that a source is dubious, but quote it anyways to provide some contrast to Suny's own (seemingly) reasonable analysis.
There is a lot to pick up on in Suny's book. There are standout chapters, where you can tell the Suny himself was invested in a topic that was relevant to Stalin's life. In particular, the nationality question stands out (The Expert) - how should a new state be formed? How does an internationalist movement deal with nationalism/nations? These are fascinating questions that still do not have a definite answer, and it is clear that many innovative and interesting solutions (or half-solutions) were discussed by Marxists throughout Europe.
One of the overall positives of Suny's book, particularly in contrast to Kotkin, is the representation of the positive possibility of the Russian socialist movement and the Russia revolution. There was a lot of excitement and genuine energy towards creating something better. There were real debates, compromises and efforts to imagine a fundamentally new world. Kotkin has more of a dim view on communist ambitions, and makes an argument that communism itself was the cause of so much suffering under Stalin. It's hard to argue with Kotkin, considering Stalin in many ways represented communism, but is it really that simple? Suny does not make such an argument, and instead leaves more to the reader to determine their own perspective on Communist/Marxist ideology - although he does acknowledge the romanticism and determinism of the Marxists.
Suny's psychological analysis of Stalin, in the Conclusion, is compelling. He writes about Stalin's history as a fugitive, working underground, being persecuted by the Tsarist police, his use of violence in dealing with traitors/spies, and his eventual participation in the civil war. Stalin’s experience of politics, alongside many of his comrades, was also an experience of war and warfare. "The logic of war - we versus them, destroying the enemy while preserving your own - becomes fundamental to [Stalin's] thinking. Once politics or any other conflict is re-conceived as war, the most extreme means, including killing ones' enemies and those who might support them even in the future, is legitimized and normalized." Perhaps a simple idea, but it rings true. I think this is where Kotkin and Suny's arguments line up: it was Stalin's experience, both underground, during the civil war and in power that forged his "politics as war" mindset.
June 20, 2024
Ever since purchasing, I’ve been pushing off the 700 page monster that is Suny’s “Stalin - Passage To Revolution because of how intimidating it is. This is a perfect title, as it only covers Stalin’s life from birth up until the 1917 Revolution, and more importantly, travels all of the maps that brought a man once known as “Soso” to the Man of Steel he would become. I mean, how else are you going to fill 700 pages centered around one guy?
That’s precisely what I loved about a lot of this. Suny at the end goes into his source biographies (mentioning a good 6 or 7 of the ones he read) and points out what other biographers missed: the atmosphere of living in a Russian Empire outskirt such as Georgia, how Russian social democracy worked in those years, and the harsh conditions of imperial rule. This detailed general work conditions and life around labor, but also looked specifically at areas Koba (Stalin) organized like Baku, Tiflis (Tbilisi), Kutaisi, Batumi, etc. Much of this laid out how the state reacted to uprisings, and why Bolsheviks struggled in the caucuses more than other areas. It touched on his personal life from time to time but never harped on it.
Moreover, this does an incredible job at tracking the Orthodox Church handlings and pointing out where Stalin moved from orthodox to Marxist, and later finding Lenin. As the book progresses, much of this starts to focus on Lenin as a means to show how Stalin interacted with, differed from, and ultimately worked next to him. The sections about Stalin’s time in exile were really interesting, especially when it discussed his day to day life and how he interacted with others. The authoritarian nature of Tsarist Russia, mixes with the constant reaches for power from the Tsar, to the Duma, the provincial government, and then the Soviets to once more, corroborate Lenin’s ideas (intentional or not) about how a state is simply a tool to hold power, and that nothing the Bolsheviks did is any different than any historical power struggle. Literally, what is discussed here has happened everywhere from the U.S. to Brazil to Russia to Japan, in varying degrees and forms. Most readers in my country of the USA aren’t able to think that far outside of their box, however.
It certainly isn’t a book written from a Marxist perspective, but an honest one that admits when it isn’t sure about possible information, something the author goes to point out at the end as well. There is of course the occasional comment about the popular anti-Stalin paradigm takes along becoming ruthless and a murderer. As you’d expect, this isn’t really sourced the way literally everything else is to a tee. So I simply chalk that up to the author’s personal conclusions around otherwise purely factual stuff that is told in good faith. If I had to make a second complaint, it’s just that perhaps a little bit of this could have been trimmed. The focus on one time period is pretty immaculate, but I would be lying if I said a few areas didn’t ramble on too deeply and got boring.
Overall, I would say this is definitely worth reading to people who have a deep interest in Stalin as a historical character, and perhaps those interested in the history of workers movements. But the casual history reader or those lightly interested in the topic may find this to be a bit redundant, and may want to stick to a shorter portrait. Overall, as someone in the former category, I was very happy with this, and nearly gave it a 5/5, but the two issues I took were just a little much to overlook; perhaps only one of them wouldn’t have been. If nothing else, I have a hell of a lot more knowledge on one of my favorite historical figures.
That’s precisely what I loved about a lot of this. Suny at the end goes into his source biographies (mentioning a good 6 or 7 of the ones he read) and points out what other biographers missed: the atmosphere of living in a Russian Empire outskirt such as Georgia, how Russian social democracy worked in those years, and the harsh conditions of imperial rule. This detailed general work conditions and life around labor, but also looked specifically at areas Koba (Stalin) organized like Baku, Tiflis (Tbilisi), Kutaisi, Batumi, etc. Much of this laid out how the state reacted to uprisings, and why Bolsheviks struggled in the caucuses more than other areas. It touched on his personal life from time to time but never harped on it.
Moreover, this does an incredible job at tracking the Orthodox Church handlings and pointing out where Stalin moved from orthodox to Marxist, and later finding Lenin. As the book progresses, much of this starts to focus on Lenin as a means to show how Stalin interacted with, differed from, and ultimately worked next to him. The sections about Stalin’s time in exile were really interesting, especially when it discussed his day to day life and how he interacted with others. The authoritarian nature of Tsarist Russia, mixes with the constant reaches for power from the Tsar, to the Duma, the provincial government, and then the Soviets to once more, corroborate Lenin’s ideas (intentional or not) about how a state is simply a tool to hold power, and that nothing the Bolsheviks did is any different than any historical power struggle. Literally, what is discussed here has happened everywhere from the U.S. to Brazil to Russia to Japan, in varying degrees and forms. Most readers in my country of the USA aren’t able to think that far outside of their box, however.
It certainly isn’t a book written from a Marxist perspective, but an honest one that admits when it isn’t sure about possible information, something the author goes to point out at the end as well. There is of course the occasional comment about the popular anti-Stalin paradigm takes along becoming ruthless and a murderer. As you’d expect, this isn’t really sourced the way literally everything else is to a tee. So I simply chalk that up to the author’s personal conclusions around otherwise purely factual stuff that is told in good faith. If I had to make a second complaint, it’s just that perhaps a little bit of this could have been trimmed. The focus on one time period is pretty immaculate, but I would be lying if I said a few areas didn’t ramble on too deeply and got boring.
Overall, I would say this is definitely worth reading to people who have a deep interest in Stalin as a historical character, and perhaps those interested in the history of workers movements. But the casual history reader or those lightly interested in the topic may find this to be a bit redundant, and may want to stick to a shorter portrait. Overall, as someone in the former category, I was very happy with this, and nearly gave it a 5/5, but the two issues I took were just a little much to overlook; perhaps only one of them wouldn’t have been. If nothing else, I have a hell of a lot more knowledge on one of my favorite historical figures.
May 11, 2024
Quando comprei esse livro esperava um pouco mais, talvez minhas expectativas e que não estavam no lugar certo, ainda que seja impossível falar de Stalin, sem mencionar a revolução de 1917 eu esperava um pouco mais a respeito da vida de Stalin, do aspecto pessoal. E uma narrativa rica em informações daquele momento histórico. Um boa leitura.
December 22, 2024
An amazingly written and researched book. Heavily detailed political landscape of the time.
February 12, 2021
How much has been written about Stalin since he came to power? The man’s history has been written, reanalyzed, and re-written over and over again so much that’s it’s hard to imagine anything new can be said about the guy. However, we always hear about how new documents are uncovered when the soviet archives were opened and the past decades, scholars have taken this opportunity to reevaluate the big figures in Soviet history. Ronald Suny has taken it upon himself to shed more light on the darker period of Stalin’s life, the part happened before the revolution.
Suny’s Stalin is a massive book and incredibly detailed. Throughout the chapters, Suny meticulously reveals the events in Stalin’s life that would later help make him the most powerful man in Russia. From his humble upbringings in Georgia, Suny recounts how Stalin grew up with a failed father figure in his life who was unable to provide for his family and how his mother’s strong discipline shaped his early life, then when he discovered Marxism, the young Stalin believed that he found the guide to how the world really works, and dedicated his life to it. Stalin’s personality traits also develop at an early age, his stubbornness, his lonesomeness, and his tendency to gravitate towards those who would be loyal to him. Suny’s Stalin also does a fantastic job of putting the positions of the Social Democrats, the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, the National Question, and the rivalry between factions into perspective to show the reader exactly where Stalin fit into everything. The picture of Stalin that emerges is of a complex person, often stubborn, who considered the ends to justify the means, who shone in his organizational skills, who emphasized unity, and who found a way to endure during very harsh periods in their life.
There are some parts of this book that make it a tougher read, however. For one, this is an extensive biography about a figure’s most boring part of their life. It’s mostly petty arguments, life in exile, holding grudges, and a Marxist interpretation of how the Social Democrats saw the revolution. So, the book can get repetitive and tedious. Another issue is that we don’t’ quite really see the picture Suny is trying to paint of Stalin. The chapters sometimes start with both flattering and disparaging comments about Stalin. And while Suny argues the usefulness of Stalin to the Bolsheviks, especially a man who could organize, it mostly just feels like Stalin just happened to be the only person available at certain moments. Just because you’re the only person able to do a certain job, doesn’t really mean you can do it well. The other thing is that nowhere in this book does it seem like Stalin ever really had any other opinion than Lenin’s. Whatever Lenin thought, Stalin would agree with. Knowing what we know about Lenin, there’s no wonder he had a proclivity towards Stalin. Also, why does Suny always quote what people had to say about how Stalin looked? He was skinny and had pockmarks. We get it.
Suny’s Stalin is a massive book with a lot of details and really works to put the different stages of Stalin’s life into perspective, trying really to figure out what motivated the man throughout his decisions in life. It’s also a review of sorts of the history of Bolshevism from before the revolution. It’s undoubtedly valuable, but a little too long.
Suny’s Stalin is a massive book and incredibly detailed. Throughout the chapters, Suny meticulously reveals the events in Stalin’s life that would later help make him the most powerful man in Russia. From his humble upbringings in Georgia, Suny recounts how Stalin grew up with a failed father figure in his life who was unable to provide for his family and how his mother’s strong discipline shaped his early life, then when he discovered Marxism, the young Stalin believed that he found the guide to how the world really works, and dedicated his life to it. Stalin’s personality traits also develop at an early age, his stubbornness, his lonesomeness, and his tendency to gravitate towards those who would be loyal to him. Suny’s Stalin also does a fantastic job of putting the positions of the Social Democrats, the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, the National Question, and the rivalry between factions into perspective to show the reader exactly where Stalin fit into everything. The picture of Stalin that emerges is of a complex person, often stubborn, who considered the ends to justify the means, who shone in his organizational skills, who emphasized unity, and who found a way to endure during very harsh periods in their life.
There are some parts of this book that make it a tougher read, however. For one, this is an extensive biography about a figure’s most boring part of their life. It’s mostly petty arguments, life in exile, holding grudges, and a Marxist interpretation of how the Social Democrats saw the revolution. So, the book can get repetitive and tedious. Another issue is that we don’t’ quite really see the picture Suny is trying to paint of Stalin. The chapters sometimes start with both flattering and disparaging comments about Stalin. And while Suny argues the usefulness of Stalin to the Bolsheviks, especially a man who could organize, it mostly just feels like Stalin just happened to be the only person available at certain moments. Just because you’re the only person able to do a certain job, doesn’t really mean you can do it well. The other thing is that nowhere in this book does it seem like Stalin ever really had any other opinion than Lenin’s. Whatever Lenin thought, Stalin would agree with. Knowing what we know about Lenin, there’s no wonder he had a proclivity towards Stalin. Also, why does Suny always quote what people had to say about how Stalin looked? He was skinny and had pockmarks. We get it.
Suny’s Stalin is a massive book with a lot of details and really works to put the different stages of Stalin’s life into perspective, trying really to figure out what motivated the man throughout his decisions in life. It’s also a review of sorts of the history of Bolshevism from before the revolution. It’s undoubtedly valuable, but a little too long.
December 8, 2024
Ronald Grigor Suny’s Stalin: Passage to Revolution is an absorbing deep dive into the making of one of history’s most complex and ruthless figures. Far from a one-dimensional portrayal, Suny meticulously charts the young Stalin’s journey—from his turbulent early years in Georgia through his intellectual awakening as a revolutionary.
Suny doesn’t shy away from nuance, providing insights into the economic and social tensions that shaped Stalin's ideological fervour. The historical detail is immense, yet Suny keeps it surprisingly readable, anchoring us in Stalin’s world without romanticising or glossing over the darker currents.
What I found particularly compelling was Suny’s skill in showing how the formative events in Stalin’s life didn’t just produce a dictator—they crafted someone whose personal grudges and political theories became inseparable.
This isn’t light reading, but for anyone curious about how a young man full of ambition could turn into a political architect of terror, Suny offers an unmissable perspective. It’s a rigorous and rewarding read, though you’ll need a strong cup of tea to get through some of the heavier sections
Suny doesn’t shy away from nuance, providing insights into the economic and social tensions that shaped Stalin's ideological fervour. The historical detail is immense, yet Suny keeps it surprisingly readable, anchoring us in Stalin’s world without romanticising or glossing over the darker currents.
What I found particularly compelling was Suny’s skill in showing how the formative events in Stalin’s life didn’t just produce a dictator—they crafted someone whose personal grudges and political theories became inseparable.
This isn’t light reading, but for anyone curious about how a young man full of ambition could turn into a political architect of terror, Suny offers an unmissable perspective. It’s a rigorous and rewarding read, though you’ll need a strong cup of tea to get through some of the heavier sections
July 30, 2023
A masterful book which goes beyond just plainly describing isolated events of Stalin’s life and describes the whole background, the important context of the world in which Stalin lived. Alongside fascinating story of Stalin’s life, author describes in detail political activities of fellow revolutionaries in the Caucasus (and later pages in the imperial capitals). So not only is this book great to learn about Stalin’s life, it also sheds light on how the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 came about and how involved Caucasian socialists were in the processes. It also succeeds in showcasing how the Tsarist regime worked, especially in the peripheries and reveals all of the paradoxes of Imperial-Colonial Russian rule in the Caucasus. All in all, definitely worthy to read
September 18, 2023
Love you Suny, but fuck you too this was a LOT of class reading for 10 days
April 28, 2025
suny's publisher and editors must've been freaking out the entire 30 odd years suny was telling them there was just one more previously closed archive he needed to go to
April 5, 2021
I was hoping to learn more about Stalin and about the evolution of the Russian revolution. This lengthy book is excellent on both counts. I did not find repetitive or boring. It is well written. But don't open it from idle curiosity. Wikipedia has good articles on the revolution and on Stalin.
My view of Stalin from wide reading is changed considerably; he was more clever, talented and widely read than I knew, and importantly was willing consistently to work long and hard for the Marxist-Leninist cause with no immediate reward and under continual threat from the Tsar's police. He was jailed and exiled to Siberia several times. There were hints of his potential for cruelty and vengeance, but there was limited opportunity for those until after the October 1917 revolution, which is where this volume ends. He had also an excellent memory, later to the detriment of anyone who had ever crossed him.
You will see the genius of Lenin at work and his excellent perception of political and popular currents, timing, and iron focus. It appears quite possible that the October revolution itself, comprising events involving mostly one city, St. Petersburg, may never have come about without the war and the revulsion it finally engendered among the soldiers and populace. And the soldiers had guns.
Prior familiarity with some of the Russians is helpful with their many names. I did not keep track of all of them (many of whom came and went), which was not troublesome, but recognized the more important ones who were significant after the revolution. Names like Kamenev and Zinoviev, not to mention Trotsky and Molotov. Stalin had three of these murdered after 1935, Trotsky in Mexico City in 1940 with an ice ax.
There were complicated and evolving cross-currents and alliances coursing through Russia leading up to the revolution: for example among social classes, political parties, labor federations, and the various territories such as Ukraine and Georgia, where Stalin was born. The author handled the difficulties well.
My view of Stalin from wide reading is changed considerably; he was more clever, talented and widely read than I knew, and importantly was willing consistently to work long and hard for the Marxist-Leninist cause with no immediate reward and under continual threat from the Tsar's police. He was jailed and exiled to Siberia several times. There were hints of his potential for cruelty and vengeance, but there was limited opportunity for those until after the October 1917 revolution, which is where this volume ends. He had also an excellent memory, later to the detriment of anyone who had ever crossed him.
You will see the genius of Lenin at work and his excellent perception of political and popular currents, timing, and iron focus. It appears quite possible that the October revolution itself, comprising events involving mostly one city, St. Petersburg, may never have come about without the war and the revulsion it finally engendered among the soldiers and populace. And the soldiers had guns.
Prior familiarity with some of the Russians is helpful with their many names. I did not keep track of all of them (many of whom came and went), which was not troublesome, but recognized the more important ones who were significant after the revolution. Names like Kamenev and Zinoviev, not to mention Trotsky and Molotov. Stalin had three of these murdered after 1935, Trotsky in Mexico City in 1940 with an ice ax.
There were complicated and evolving cross-currents and alliances coursing through Russia leading up to the revolution: for example among social classes, political parties, labor federations, and the various territories such as Ukraine and Georgia, where Stalin was born. The author handled the difficulties well.
November 9, 2022
Picking up this biography of Stalin, I wondered what prompts us to read biographies. Most of the biographies I read are of figures viewed more-or-less positively by history, like American presidents (how do I not have a single biography of Lincoln or Washington reviewed on the site?), and even more complicated figures, like Von Braun or HG Wells, are generally viewed as having done more good than harm in their lives. When we read about such people, success stories who achieved great things, I think we are often looking for insights, to understand what made them great, to bask a little in their glory, to feel that, in a sense, we know them, rather like the parasocial relationships fostered by social media. Reading a biography of a figure like Stalin, though, is a different story. We can learn the history of a time, place, or person without reading a biography. Biographies are fundamentally personal, and why should we desire to spend time in the company of someone considered one of history's villains?
In most cases, I think that the answer is a desire to understand. That's why I sought out this biography of Stalin, and as Suny explains, that is how most biographers approach the Soviet dictator's life story; they seek explanations, narratives, psychoanalyses that will allow them to conceptualize and approach someone whose actions seem unjustifiable. That desire can make easy, simple answers profoundly tempting, but Suny doesn't settle for the briefly summarized explanations of other Stalin scholars. He gives us a rich, full accounting of Stalin's life (such as can be achieved with the limited evidence from some periods) through the revolutions of 1917 without attempting to point to any one factor and say "this, this is why Stalin became the man he did." By refraining from identifying a single, packaged solution, Suny's Stalin does what biography does best; it makes the narrative of Stalin's evolution from Georgian peasant to Soviet dictator seem the inevitable result of a series of logical steps.
When crafting a narrative for fiction, authors often deploy the phrase 'surprising, yet inevitable.' The core idea is that, while a reader should not necessarily see the end result coming, they should be able to look back and see the series of perfectly logical and concrete steps that lead unalterably to the conclusion. Stalin: Passage to Revolution attempts to achieve the same result, and Suny does a remarkable job for most of his biography. He is hampered, however, by the lack of information, especially about Stalin's earliest years, because we cannot know exactly what happened during Stalin's schooling that led him to turn from his path to becoming an Orthodox priest with a talent for singing to instead the path of the professional revolutionary. Oh, we can point to various social factors, proximal events, and other contributors that likely influenced him, but in the absence of any kind of journal or memoir from Stalin or a close companion, Suny can only give us conjecture. If there is a place where Stalin fails to make its subject's passage to revolution inevitable, it is here.
That is no fault of Suny's, however, and in fact may constitute one of his greatest strengths as a biographer: he limits commentary and moralizing, instead providing us with as much information as possible about what happened and the context of those events so that we, as readers, can make our own conclusions. This may be the most honest way of approaching biography, for humans are complex creatures who rarely can be reduced to a simple explanation. We are too full of contradictions and inconsistencies and emotions for that to be adequate. To present a figure such a Stalin as neither sympathetic nor unsympathetic, to reserve as far as possible judgement from the text, is an impressive feat, and is prime amongst the reasons I would recommend Stalin.
Any biography of Stalin must inevitably address Marxism/socialism/communism, for Stalin's rise to power, and, as this biography makes clear, the majority of his identity, were inextricably linked to what is, by some metrics, the most destructive ideology in human history (despite this, it somehow remains the darling of the modern 'intelligentsia,' and is even rising in prominence as the shadow it cast over the twentieth century fades from living memory, which could be the subject of its own book). I read some Marx after reading Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (in the interest of fairness), so I was already grounded in the basics of these related political philosophies/theories of history, but Suny does an excellent job of conveying the key elements of these ideologies, especially the inevitable weight of historical progression and the emphasis on denomination of class above all other identifiers, without wading too deeply into murky philosophical waters that would only serve to confuse and muddle any text intended as a biography or history.
While I understand that the book is titled Stalin: Passage to Revolution, the conclusion still took me by surprise; this is one of those books where you get just past halfway and discover that most of the second half of the book is the notes, bibliography, and other material not part of the main text. Suny cuts off his biography within days of the end of the revolution in October 1917, provides a brief sketch in his conclusion of the remainder of Stalin's life, and is then finished. Suny's central aim is to show how Stalin evolves from provincial Georgian to a leader in the Bolsheviks during the 1917 revolution, which he asserts is the springboard by which the remainder of his rise to dictator of the Soviet Union and one of the "Big Three" rulers during the Second World War is assured, but I think that either a continuation of this text, or a second volume that explores the remainder of Stalin's life, would be just as interesting. If my biggest critique is that the book is not long enough, however, it must have been well-written, and this was. Whether you are trying to write better villains in your fiction, learn more about an under-taught part of world history, gain a better understanding of how Russia came to be the country it is today under Putin, or just want to understand how someone like Stalin comes to be, I think you will appreciate Suny's Stalin: Passage to Revolution.
August 22, 2024
Ronald Grigor Suny’s Stalin: Passage to Revolution, at just over 700 pages, is without question in my view now the most authoritative text on Stalin’s formative years from his birth in 1879 up to the victory of the revolution in 1917. In much of this book the infamous Georgian Bolshevik goes by the name Koba, not Stalin. It’s not until page 491 that he finally adopts this more well-known mantle. However, this book is about more than just Stalin as an individual. Alongside his biography of the young Stalin, Suny also provides a compelling history of Marxism and Social Democracy in the Russian Empire. He takes the reader through the various debates within Russian Social Democracy, for example, such as that between Vladimir Lenin and the liquidators (those who were against the party underground and who wanted to focus on legal work only).
Suny begins in 1879, when Ioseb Jughashvili, often known as “Soso” in his early years, was born in Gori, Georgia. His father was a shoemaker and his mother deeply religious. Explaining that “Georgia had been part of the Russian Empire for less than a century when Soso was born” (page 15), Suny reflects that young Jughashvili’s childhood was “not particularly distinct from that of other poor boys in Gori.” (Page 13) From here Suny paints a fascinating portrait of a young boy who eventually, thanks to his mother’s determination, went on to attend Tiflis Seminary for his education. Eventually he discovers Marxism and becomes an active revolutionary, determined to see the end of Tsarism and the capitalist system.
This book is a welcome corrective to the Trotskyist distortion of history regarding Stalin that much of the Western left is, rather unfortunately, infatuated with. The dominant ideology has always been only too happy to lift without criticism from Trotsky’s anti-Stalin diatribes as they very much fitted with the Cold Warrior outlook and provided much of the source material for the Western academic works of the post-war to 1970 period. When discussing the revolutionary year of 1905, Suny explains that “Trotsky spends thirty pages in his biography of his rival demonstrating how Stalin sat out the revolutionary year in Georgia, a dull editorial writer absent from any of the strikes, protests, or armed confrontations. Yet in fact Jughashvili was deeply involved in the Caucasian revolution, and 1905 was a transformative experience that shaped the further evolution of the man who became Stalin.” (pages 230-231) Suny continues a couple of chapters later: “Rather than standing aside, as Trotsky imagined, or being absent in the revolutionary civil war that marked 1905 in Caucasia, Koba was the behind-the-scenes coordinator of armed bands that took vengeance on officials and collaborators… and robbed the state treasury and shops for arms and the money needed to carry on their activities… They also protected the Jews when they were threatened by a pogrom.” (Page 282)
Passage to Revolution regularly demolishes the received wisdom surrounding Stalin. Suny describes in the opening pages how “when it comes to Stalin, gossip is reported as fact, legend provides meaning, and scholarship gives way to sensationalist popular literature with tangential reference to the reliable sources.” (Page 2) Throughout this work, Suny demonstrates that Stalin was a genuine revolutionary in the thick of the action, often putting his life and freedom on the line for the cause of the working class and socialism. Koba was regularly under police surveillance and was arrested and sent into exile a total of six times (1903-1904, 1908-1909, 1910-1911,1911-1912, again in 1912 and finally in 1913-1917). He suffered extreme hardship, and Suny details how “the harshness of this exile was felt on the body. The almost complete lack of fresh vegetables and fruit gave rise to scurvy and a kind of sleeping sickness… Stalin complained repeatedly about money and his sickness and hunger.” (Page 545) At another time, while in a Tsarist prison, “he was locked up with about twenty political prisoners in a cold, damp cell. Every day a few prisoners died from typhus.” (page 405)
Contrary to popular belief, that Stalin was the man who missed the 1917 revolution, Suny instead portrays him during this period as “honed in the underground and in his occasional forays into trade union and electoral politics, his talents as an organiser, so often praised even by his enemies, now were vital to his personal and his party’s success.” (page 598) Stalin was crucial to the Bolshevik’s eventual revolutionary victory and throughout the summer of 1917, with Lenin and Trotsky in exile/prison, even found himself as “the highest-ranking member of the most important opposition to the government and the Soviet. Throughout the summer of 1917, Stalin was his party’s pivotal person.” (page 641) Any lingering myths of a grey blur are successfully discarded with.
This text is an absolute triumph for anyone interested in Soviet history, a feat that would not have been possible “without the opening of the formerly Soviet archives at the end of the 1980s and through the 1990s” as Suny acknowledges. It manages at the same time to be both accessible and engrossingly in-depth, debunking myths and detailing new information along the way. At the beginning of this book, Suny declares that he wants it to be seen as a “caution that the line between history and fiction is too easily crossed.” (Page 8) I can confidently say that with Stalin: Passage to Revolution, Suny has pulled the debate away from the fictions of Cold War/bourgeois historians and Trotskyists and towards a real history of Stalin, one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.
Other books I would recommend for those interested in learning more about the history of Stalin and the USSR under his leadership:
Stalin: From the Caucasus to the Kremlin - Christopher Read
Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 - Geoffrey Roberts
Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend - Domenico Losurdo
Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization: Ideas, Power, and Terror in Inter-War Russia - David Priestland
Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition - J. Arch Getty
Suny begins in 1879, when Ioseb Jughashvili, often known as “Soso” in his early years, was born in Gori, Georgia. His father was a shoemaker and his mother deeply religious. Explaining that “Georgia had been part of the Russian Empire for less than a century when Soso was born” (page 15), Suny reflects that young Jughashvili’s childhood was “not particularly distinct from that of other poor boys in Gori.” (Page 13) From here Suny paints a fascinating portrait of a young boy who eventually, thanks to his mother’s determination, went on to attend Tiflis Seminary for his education. Eventually he discovers Marxism and becomes an active revolutionary, determined to see the end of Tsarism and the capitalist system.
This book is a welcome corrective to the Trotskyist distortion of history regarding Stalin that much of the Western left is, rather unfortunately, infatuated with. The dominant ideology has always been only too happy to lift without criticism from Trotsky’s anti-Stalin diatribes as they very much fitted with the Cold Warrior outlook and provided much of the source material for the Western academic works of the post-war to 1970 period. When discussing the revolutionary year of 1905, Suny explains that “Trotsky spends thirty pages in his biography of his rival demonstrating how Stalin sat out the revolutionary year in Georgia, a dull editorial writer absent from any of the strikes, protests, or armed confrontations. Yet in fact Jughashvili was deeply involved in the Caucasian revolution, and 1905 was a transformative experience that shaped the further evolution of the man who became Stalin.” (pages 230-231) Suny continues a couple of chapters later: “Rather than standing aside, as Trotsky imagined, or being absent in the revolutionary civil war that marked 1905 in Caucasia, Koba was the behind-the-scenes coordinator of armed bands that took vengeance on officials and collaborators… and robbed the state treasury and shops for arms and the money needed to carry on their activities… They also protected the Jews when they were threatened by a pogrom.” (Page 282)
Passage to Revolution regularly demolishes the received wisdom surrounding Stalin. Suny describes in the opening pages how “when it comes to Stalin, gossip is reported as fact, legend provides meaning, and scholarship gives way to sensationalist popular literature with tangential reference to the reliable sources.” (Page 2) Throughout this work, Suny demonstrates that Stalin was a genuine revolutionary in the thick of the action, often putting his life and freedom on the line for the cause of the working class and socialism. Koba was regularly under police surveillance and was arrested and sent into exile a total of six times (1903-1904, 1908-1909, 1910-1911,1911-1912, again in 1912 and finally in 1913-1917). He suffered extreme hardship, and Suny details how “the harshness of this exile was felt on the body. The almost complete lack of fresh vegetables and fruit gave rise to scurvy and a kind of sleeping sickness… Stalin complained repeatedly about money and his sickness and hunger.” (Page 545) At another time, while in a Tsarist prison, “he was locked up with about twenty political prisoners in a cold, damp cell. Every day a few prisoners died from typhus.” (page 405)
Contrary to popular belief, that Stalin was the man who missed the 1917 revolution, Suny instead portrays him during this period as “honed in the underground and in his occasional forays into trade union and electoral politics, his talents as an organiser, so often praised even by his enemies, now were vital to his personal and his party’s success.” (page 598) Stalin was crucial to the Bolshevik’s eventual revolutionary victory and throughout the summer of 1917, with Lenin and Trotsky in exile/prison, even found himself as “the highest-ranking member of the most important opposition to the government and the Soviet. Throughout the summer of 1917, Stalin was his party’s pivotal person.” (page 641) Any lingering myths of a grey blur are successfully discarded with.
This text is an absolute triumph for anyone interested in Soviet history, a feat that would not have been possible “without the opening of the formerly Soviet archives at the end of the 1980s and through the 1990s” as Suny acknowledges. It manages at the same time to be both accessible and engrossingly in-depth, debunking myths and detailing new information along the way. At the beginning of this book, Suny declares that he wants it to be seen as a “caution that the line between history and fiction is too easily crossed.” (Page 8) I can confidently say that with Stalin: Passage to Revolution, Suny has pulled the debate away from the fictions of Cold War/bourgeois historians and Trotskyists and towards a real history of Stalin, one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.
Other books I would recommend for those interested in learning more about the history of Stalin and the USSR under his leadership:
Stalin: From the Caucasus to the Kremlin - Christopher Read
Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 - Geoffrey Roberts
Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend - Domenico Losurdo
Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization: Ideas, Power, and Terror in Inter-War Russia - David Priestland
Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition - J. Arch Getty
January 14, 2022
This book was very thorough when it came to documenting protests, meetings among party members, etc., but it lacked the personal touch that one often expects with biographies. The author did provide some interesting information about Stalin’s childhood and early life, up to the point when he left the seminary, but after that the book stopped looking at Stalin as a human being, and instead spent nearly all of its time on Stalin as the writer of propaganda materials and organizer of meetings between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. A more balanced approach, spending ample time on both the personal and political life would have been nice, and the reader didn’t necessarily need to know about every time Stalin wrote a new leaflet to hand out. Overall, it was worth the read, since I learned some fascinating new tidbits about who this historical figure was in his younger years, but this heavy tome was much more dry than necessary.
Read
November 30, 2021dnf - as a 28 hour audiobook it was a bit of a commitment and just gave up after some time as wasn't looking forward to continuing. There are 100's of other Stalin biographies to choose from so it's something I'll eventually get to with a different author.
July 25, 2021
good for making you think that your friends are working for the secret police
March 28, 2022
Sloppy organization, badly needs an editor
July 2, 2025
## Key takeaways
- Stalin (Soso) was very weak and thin, constantly sick as a baby. Nearly died age 6 from smallpox, bearing deep pitted pockmarks his whole life.
- Father was a shoemaker, and all was well at first but when his first son died a few months after birth, his father turned to drink from grief, compounded by the death of his second son. Wouldn’t let his wife work to improve their situation. Didn’t want his son educated but to work in a factory with him. Eventually abandoned his family around 1890 when Soso was 11. Soso was mercilessly beaten by his father, through him Soso learned to hate people.
- There is a story where his father owed money to a merchant and paid while drunk so the merchant was crafty, saying he never paid. Stalin’s father retorted this and was carried off by the police. Then 11, Stalin went to the merchant and promised to burn down his shop if he did not rescind he accusations which he then did.
- Soso was a mommy’s boy, his mother emphasized his contemplative nature and his delight in reading and walking. She remembered his love for music of the duduki (Caucasian flute), for birds, and daisies. He learnt to walk from his mother holding out a daisy to encourage him.
- His mother was strong willed and put all her efforts into her son. She never gave up her dream that he would become a priest, even after he became the secular autocrat of the largest country in the world. His mother beat him too but he never resented it.
- Stalin's daughter says - grandmother had her principles, the principles of a religious person who had lived a strict, hard, honest, and worthy life. Her firmness, obstinacy, her strictness toward herself, her puritan morality, her masculine character, all of this passed to my father. He was much more like her than like his father.
- The seminary russifying regime failed as the students fought harder to preserve learnings of Georgian culture, Stalin would meet with fellow students to laboriously copy out rare books from Marx and Engels, some of the few copies in Tbilisi.
- Stalin learnt that disseminating knowledge to people whose lives were consumed by labouring to live was extraordinarily difficult, especially in the conditions of a police state.
- Marxist political culture insisted that nationality was less significant than social class, which was far more indicative of a person's affinities and attitudes.
- In reference to his wife - "this creature softened my heart of stone; she has died, and with her my last warm feelings for people"
- A.L. Zisserman - comparing Tbilisi in 1842 and 1878 is like Asia and Europe; now one has to search for oriental peculiarities.
- English Traveller James Bryce - in Tbilisi it is not the particular things to be seen in the city that impress themselves on ones memory: it is the city itself, the strange mixture of so many races, tongues, religions, customs.".
- Stalin (Soso) was very weak and thin, constantly sick as a baby. Nearly died age 6 from smallpox, bearing deep pitted pockmarks his whole life.
- Father was a shoemaker, and all was well at first but when his first son died a few months after birth, his father turned to drink from grief, compounded by the death of his second son. Wouldn’t let his wife work to improve their situation. Didn’t want his son educated but to work in a factory with him. Eventually abandoned his family around 1890 when Soso was 11. Soso was mercilessly beaten by his father, through him Soso learned to hate people.
- There is a story where his father owed money to a merchant and paid while drunk so the merchant was crafty, saying he never paid. Stalin’s father retorted this and was carried off by the police. Then 11, Stalin went to the merchant and promised to burn down his shop if he did not rescind he accusations which he then did.
- Soso was a mommy’s boy, his mother emphasized his contemplative nature and his delight in reading and walking. She remembered his love for music of the duduki (Caucasian flute), for birds, and daisies. He learnt to walk from his mother holding out a daisy to encourage him.
- His mother was strong willed and put all her efforts into her son. She never gave up her dream that he would become a priest, even after he became the secular autocrat of the largest country in the world. His mother beat him too but he never resented it.
- Stalin's daughter says - grandmother had her principles, the principles of a religious person who had lived a strict, hard, honest, and worthy life. Her firmness, obstinacy, her strictness toward herself, her puritan morality, her masculine character, all of this passed to my father. He was much more like her than like his father.
- The seminary russifying regime failed as the students fought harder to preserve learnings of Georgian culture, Stalin would meet with fellow students to laboriously copy out rare books from Marx and Engels, some of the few copies in Tbilisi.
- Stalin learnt that disseminating knowledge to people whose lives were consumed by labouring to live was extraordinarily difficult, especially in the conditions of a police state.
- Marxist political culture insisted that nationality was less significant than social class, which was far more indicative of a person's affinities and attitudes.
- In reference to his wife - "this creature softened my heart of stone; she has died, and with her my last warm feelings for people"
- A.L. Zisserman - comparing Tbilisi in 1842 and 1878 is like Asia and Europe; now one has to search for oriental peculiarities.
- English Traveller James Bryce - in Tbilisi it is not the particular things to be seen in the city that impress themselves on ones memory: it is the city itself, the strange mixture of so many races, tongues, religions, customs.".
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May 26, 2024To a casual reader this seemed authoritative and densely detailed, if necessarily dry. The author has focused on presenting readers with what has been documented and is more or less beyond doubt, avoiding psychoanalytic analysis of evidence. In cases where evidence is questionable, Suny seems to do a good job of presenting the reader with analysis of the reliability of the past historians work.
However, this laudable approach, coupled with the fact Stalin did not leave behind much in the way of diaries or lengthy, revealing personal correspondence, means the narrative can feel distant at times. There are many stretches that feel almost like a bibliography of various articles Stalin wrote for various publications. Ironically I found the most interesting segment to be the long stretch where Stalin was exiled in Siberia, living out what had to be among his most boring days. The reason for this is that we have the most intimate portrait of what Stalin was doing on a day to day basis.
In general theoretical questions like how Stalin's views on nationalism evolved, are handled in rich detail, while practical details, like how Stalin got the money to subsist on during his underground years, or what exactly happened when a person was killed at his behest are only loosely sketched out, with readers needing to connect the dots.
There was ample context to situate a reader within the Russian social democratic world of the first two decades of the 20th century. I feel able to attempt an explanation at how the differences between Bolshevism and Menshevism evolved between 1905 and, say 1910, for example. I would have appreciated more context around the world of the Russian empire outside of social democratic circles, and what the relative influence/impact of the movement was, particularly before 1914.
The quality of the work was excellent, but the nature of the work is a bit lifeless for a biography, which again, seems to be in large part down to the existing documentary evidence. I would recommend interested readers come in with a strong (and not just passing) understanding of the events that take place after 1917 in order to appreciate the context that this provides around Stalin.
However, this laudable approach, coupled with the fact Stalin did not leave behind much in the way of diaries or lengthy, revealing personal correspondence, means the narrative can feel distant at times. There are many stretches that feel almost like a bibliography of various articles Stalin wrote for various publications. Ironically I found the most interesting segment to be the long stretch where Stalin was exiled in Siberia, living out what had to be among his most boring days. The reason for this is that we have the most intimate portrait of what Stalin was doing on a day to day basis.
In general theoretical questions like how Stalin's views on nationalism evolved, are handled in rich detail, while practical details, like how Stalin got the money to subsist on during his underground years, or what exactly happened when a person was killed at his behest are only loosely sketched out, with readers needing to connect the dots.
There was ample context to situate a reader within the Russian social democratic world of the first two decades of the 20th century. I feel able to attempt an explanation at how the differences between Bolshevism and Menshevism evolved between 1905 and, say 1910, for example. I would have appreciated more context around the world of the Russian empire outside of social democratic circles, and what the relative influence/impact of the movement was, particularly before 1914.
The quality of the work was excellent, but the nature of the work is a bit lifeless for a biography, which again, seems to be in large part down to the existing documentary evidence. I would recommend interested readers come in with a strong (and not just passing) understanding of the events that take place after 1917 in order to appreciate the context that this provides around Stalin.
December 15, 2021
Finally, a biography I can adore. The author takes the rare, obvious, approach to thoroughly analyzing his subjects environment. He does this with actual interest and curiosity. Where most authors declare bolsheviks as a mass of barbarians, Suny doesnt bother with cheap moralizing. He takes his time, explaining the horrific circumstances under which this movement developments, yet he never falls into being apologetic. Most wonderful, he goes right into explaining marxist ideology and its influence on Stalin and doesnt shy away pointing out other biographers mistake in omitting its importance. I found myself reading this book in two days. What a shame it ends rather aprupt. I shall hope in vain at the prospect of a second part.
May 20, 2023
Massive, detailed book on Stalin up to the October 1917 coup. While the objective tone and detailed descriptions are welcome, its a dry and often tedious read.
There's simply too much description of non-stalin related events and places, and dull chronological narrative aka "and then on January 5th, Koba ate a tuna sandwhich for lunch". And there's not enough about Stalin's motivations, thoughts and beliefs. And annoyingly, instead of referering to Stalin as "Stalin", the book first calls him "Soso", and then (sometime in the 1900s) as "Koba".
That said, I appreciate that the book emphasizes that Stalin was a Communist true believer, who spent almost 17 years in prison, Siberian exile, and engaging in risky Revolutionary activities. The book shows that Stalin and the other bolsheviks had to constantly deal with the Russian secret police and traitor/informers in their ranks. No wonder Stalin was paranoid.
The book also makes clear that Stalin was NOT a Russian. He was a Georgian who spent his revolutionary years on the fringes of the Russian Empire. Perhaps if someone could've sat FDR or Churchill down with a book of this type in 1941, they would've understood who they were dealing with.
There's simply too much description of non-stalin related events and places, and dull chronological narrative aka "and then on January 5th, Koba ate a tuna sandwhich for lunch". And there's not enough about Stalin's motivations, thoughts and beliefs. And annoyingly, instead of referering to Stalin as "Stalin", the book first calls him "Soso", and then (sometime in the 1900s) as "Koba".
That said, I appreciate that the book emphasizes that Stalin was a Communist true believer, who spent almost 17 years in prison, Siberian exile, and engaging in risky Revolutionary activities. The book shows that Stalin and the other bolsheviks had to constantly deal with the Russian secret police and traitor/informers in their ranks. No wonder Stalin was paranoid.
The book also makes clear that Stalin was NOT a Russian. He was a Georgian who spent his revolutionary years on the fringes of the Russian Empire. Perhaps if someone could've sat FDR or Churchill down with a book of this type in 1941, they would've understood who they were dealing with.
February 21, 2023
Sober and systematic, uncovers quite a few new sources (such as Stalin's articles not translated into Russian and not included in the Collected Works) to provide a picture of personal formation that balances political and cultural factors. Not sure about the rest, but inaccuracies in the account of 1917 are few and minor (Anton Slutskii is renamed Abram, Razliv placed in Finland, or Vasilii Stepanov described as full minister instead of acting one, for example).
January 30, 2025
I was hesitant to read this b/c it ends at the October Revolution, i.e. when things start getting really good, but turns out it also has fairly in-depth coverage of the internal debates of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, a really good account of the Bolshevik-Menshevik split, and an overview of Caucasian politics that has greatly enhanced my understanding of the Georgian Crisis of 1921.
January 11, 2022
Thoroughly documents Stalin's life from childhood in Georgia to the Bolshevik revolution while vividly filling in the changing political climate around him. Stalin was a dedicated revolutionary for almost his entire life and worked incessantly as a party organizer when many others abandoned the party in despair
March 4, 2023
Well this one took me months to finish and towards the end it really was hard to even finish. Overall good book, it was recommended by a professor. I liked the way it really explained the different types of marxism and socialism and the fine difference between all the sub-categories. Would not read again just because its sooo long
September 29, 2023
Great read, especially the parts on the 1905 revolution. Some knowledge of the history is probably required to enjoy the whole book, especially the parts that seek to explore Stalin’s contribution to theoretical debates among Bolsheviks. One is left with the feeling of how contingent it all is that this tyrant took power.
March 21, 2024
Comprehensive and well cited work about Stalin's childhood and contextualizes his development in Czarist Georgia. A dry read for the uninitiated nonfiction reader, but that's the price for a thorough biography. Writing with complete objectivity is impossible, but this has to be the closest one could come to an objective (first half) biography.
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