"In just under 200 crisply written pages, Abraham Ascher provides a splendid summary of Joseph Stalin's life and a penetrating study of his rule. Ascher gives his readers far more than an accurate account of a turbulent era in Russian history. He sets Stalin in the global scene, supplies sharply defined portraits of his henchmen and victims, and makes a balanced assessment of the scholarly disputes that continue to swirl around the man and his times. This book is a perfect introduction to complicated and fascinating subject." -- Richard Robbins, Professor Emeritus of History, University of New Mexico "In this stimulating book Abraham Ascher provides a first-rate Beginner's Guide to the man who was born into a Russia of the wooden plough but bequeathed it the A-Bomb: to Stalin the man, Stalin the revolutionary, and Stalin the dictator. Written in an engaging style, the book nevertheless tackles the big questions: How and why did Stalin become a revolutionary? How, from a quite lowly rank within a pantheon of brilliant Bolshevik intellectuals, did this rough-hewn, Georgian outsider rise to supreme power in the USSR and fashion it into the world's second superpower? What is his legacy for contemporary Russia and the world? And why does history still treat him more gently than it has his great rival, Adolf Hitler?" -- Dr. Jonathan Smele, Senior Lecturer of History, Queen Mary University of London "Professor Ascher's book provides a nuanced sense of Stalin's personality, the environment from which he emerged, his role in the revolution itself, and the political skills that allowed him to concentrate unprecedented political power in his hands. He writes with admirable clarity and renders clear and balanced judgments on a host of complex problems, from Stalin's sponsorship of collectivization, industrialization, and the purges of the late 1930s to Stalin's role as wartime leader." -- Professor Samuel C. Ramer, Professor of History, Tulane University