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Joseph Stalin: A Short Biography
Originally published in the Soviet Union in 1950, this Stalinist-era political book gives a unique glimpse of the man and the era. It includes a variety of photographs of Stalin at various ages, beginning at age 15.
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
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About the author
Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute
12 books9 followersThe Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute, established in Moscow in 1919 as the Marx–Engels Institute (Russian: Институт К. Маркса и Ф. Энгельса), was a Soviet library and archive attached to the Communist Academy. The Institute was later attached to the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and served as a research center and publishing house for officially published works of Marxist thought.
The Marx–Engels Institute gathered unpublished manuscripts by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and other leading Marxist theoreticians as well as collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals related to the socialist and organized labor movements. By 1930, the facility's holdings included more than 400,000 books and journals and more than 55000 original and photocopy documents by Marx and Engels alone, making it one of the largest holdings of socialist-related material in the world.
In February 1931, director of the Marx–Engels Institute David Riazanov and others on the staff were purged for ideological reasons. In November of that same year, the Marx–Engels Institute was merged with the larger and less scholarly Lenin Institute (established in 1923) to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute and its director became Vladimir Adoratsky.
The Institute was the coordinating authority for the systematic organization of documents released in the multi-volume editions of the Collected Works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and numerous other official publications. It was officially terminated in November 1991, with the bulk of its archival holdings now residing with a successor organization, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).
The Marx–Engels Institute gathered unpublished manuscripts by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and other leading Marxist theoreticians as well as collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals related to the socialist and organized labor movements. By 1930, the facility's holdings included more than 400,000 books and journals and more than 55000 original and photocopy documents by Marx and Engels alone, making it one of the largest holdings of socialist-related material in the world.
In February 1931, director of the Marx–Engels Institute David Riazanov and others on the staff were purged for ideological reasons. In November of that same year, the Marx–Engels Institute was merged with the larger and less scholarly Lenin Institute (established in 1923) to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute and its director became Vladimir Adoratsky.
The Institute was the coordinating authority for the systematic organization of documents released in the multi-volume editions of the Collected Works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and numerous other official publications. It was officially terminated in November 1991, with the bulk of its archival holdings now residing with a successor organization, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 30, 2020
Hemen hemen tüm süreçleri anlatıyor ama "kısa biyografi" olması sebebiyle, olay ve davranışların ardındaki motivasyonlara ve nasıl gerçekleştirildiğine hakkıyla değinmiyor. Bu da sıralı olay dökümü gibi işleyişe sebep oluyor. Üstüne, kimi okurlar da, kitap sebep sonuç ilişkisini çok yüzeysel kurduğu için Stalin imajının inandırıcılığını zedeleyebilir. Oysaki Stalin kitapta yazanların gerçekten hepsini de yapıyor aşağı yukarı.
Stalin'e dair nispeten az bilgisi olanlar bakabilir.
Jack T. Murphy'nin biyografisi daha iyiydi.
Stalin'e dair nispeten az bilgisi olanlar bakabilir.
Jack T. Murphy'nin biyografisi daha iyiydi.
May 15, 2023
A decent biography of the eminent Bolshevik, continuer of the work of Lenin, and fourth classic of Marxism-Leninism, but subject to several problems which prevent me from rating this book higher.
This biography was primarily the result of Anastas Mikoyan who had long called for such a book to be written since the early 30s. As history shows, however, Mikoyan would be instrumental in the great conspiracy against Stalin, later boasting of how they'd murdered Stalin to the Albanians. Following the triumph of the conspiracy against Stalin, we would be shown what the real purpose of this book was - that is, to discredit Stalin by providing a convenient work to point to as evidence of Stalin's cult of personality and embellishment of his feats, in short, to easily allow the enemies of Bolshevism to paint him as evil. In fact, many unmasked enemies of Bolshevism feigned admiration of Stalin and heaped the highest praises onto him such as Radek and Yezhov, and then the Khrushchevite clique which included Mikoyan.
With this sinister history in mind, the book is full of truthful facts admitted by even the most fervent anti-communists mixed with embellishments and high-flung praise in order to allow this book to fulfil its intended purpose.
The early chapters surrounding the youth of Stalin in Georgia and fighting by Lenin's side during the October Revolution and civil war are quite good and can be compared with Stalin's own modest account of things and other more sincere biographies, such as that written by Henri Barbusse in 1935. Even the chapters dealing with the period of industrialisation and the elimination of the right and left deviations in the party are quite good, mostly being a summary of the advances made by the Soviet state and the theoretical works of Stalin.
It is in the final two chapters, and the last chapter especially, when things begin to go off the rails. Mixed with correct information concerning the situation in the party and country, certain unnecessary embellishments are added such as attributing the entire authorship of the Short Course on the History of the CPSU(B) to Stalin despite all editions of that book issued during Stalin's lifetime never proclaiming this with only one segment (the segment on dialectical and historical materialism) being written by and attributed to Stalin and Stalin otherwise acting as a mere editor for the book, Stalin most certainly having been too busy at the time to author the whole volume.
There is also the overly flowery wording in the final chapter which seeks to portray Stalin as having elevated Marxism to a whole new level above Marx, Engels, and Lenin, trying to portray Stalin as the sole saviour of the Soviet Union, the kind of praise Stalin himself could never tolerate.
Overall, an excellent biography in some places (namely the early chapters) and a flowery propaganda piece written with the most sinister of intentions in others. The sinister intent of this book is really what lends it its extremely negative qualities and atmosphere around it. It is no wonder that this book was reissued with several more embellishments only a few years before the murder of Stalin...
This biography was primarily the result of Anastas Mikoyan who had long called for such a book to be written since the early 30s. As history shows, however, Mikoyan would be instrumental in the great conspiracy against Stalin, later boasting of how they'd murdered Stalin to the Albanians. Following the triumph of the conspiracy against Stalin, we would be shown what the real purpose of this book was - that is, to discredit Stalin by providing a convenient work to point to as evidence of Stalin's cult of personality and embellishment of his feats, in short, to easily allow the enemies of Bolshevism to paint him as evil. In fact, many unmasked enemies of Bolshevism feigned admiration of Stalin and heaped the highest praises onto him such as Radek and Yezhov, and then the Khrushchevite clique which included Mikoyan.
With this sinister history in mind, the book is full of truthful facts admitted by even the most fervent anti-communists mixed with embellishments and high-flung praise in order to allow this book to fulfil its intended purpose.
The early chapters surrounding the youth of Stalin in Georgia and fighting by Lenin's side during the October Revolution and civil war are quite good and can be compared with Stalin's own modest account of things and other more sincere biographies, such as that written by Henri Barbusse in 1935. Even the chapters dealing with the period of industrialisation and the elimination of the right and left deviations in the party are quite good, mostly being a summary of the advances made by the Soviet state and the theoretical works of Stalin.
It is in the final two chapters, and the last chapter especially, when things begin to go off the rails. Mixed with correct information concerning the situation in the party and country, certain unnecessary embellishments are added such as attributing the entire authorship of the Short Course on the History of the CPSU(B) to Stalin despite all editions of that book issued during Stalin's lifetime never proclaiming this with only one segment (the segment on dialectical and historical materialism) being written by and attributed to Stalin and Stalin otherwise acting as a mere editor for the book, Stalin most certainly having been too busy at the time to author the whole volume.
There is also the overly flowery wording in the final chapter which seeks to portray Stalin as having elevated Marxism to a whole new level above Marx, Engels, and Lenin, trying to portray Stalin as the sole saviour of the Soviet Union, the kind of praise Stalin himself could never tolerate.
Overall, an excellent biography in some places (namely the early chapters) and a flowery propaganda piece written with the most sinister of intentions in others. The sinister intent of this book is really what lends it its extremely negative qualities and atmosphere around it. It is no wonder that this book was reissued with several more embellishments only a few years before the murder of Stalin...
December 25, 2025
The shortness of this bio makes it feel a little like a "cult to the personality of" text. Interesting data is provided in some chapters about the development of the USSR, some parts of great speaches given by Stalin are available and some cool photos also. There is little about the personal life of Stalin. I found it a little boring despite me being a marxist.
June 14, 2020
'Joseph Stalin: A Short Biography' is by no means a reliable biography, and it barely is one, it's more of a compacted Soviet history that's main purpose is to outline the prestige and utmost competence of Stalin.
Being from 1939, this slim volume is near-entirely pure propaganda. It can be quite dull and cumbersome to read at times (it took me quite a while despite its small 91 pages) but it is an extremely valuable piece of literature that shows the extent of manipulated truths and outright lies employed by the propaganda cult of Stalin, and its consistent comparison of him to Lenin, and the demonisation of Trotskyites, Bukharin, and the Bourgeois.
An extremely interesting read, though if you are wanting a proper cohesive, concise biography of Stalin or of the CPSUR, look elsewhere.
If you want to see the information that the Russian masses had access to at the start of the Second World War (and their third war in the past 3 decades), this is perfect.
April 12, 2008
A must!!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews