The Death of Stalin by Sheila Fitzpatrick

“The Death of Stalin” plunges us into the 1953 power vacuum after the Soviet dictator’s death, blending political analysis with dark humour. Sheila Fitzpatrick draws on her unmatched expertise of Stalin’s inner circle to expose the bizarre, brutal and often overlooked machinations that reshaped the USSR and echoed all the way to Putin’s Russia.

When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, he had been the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union for over twenty years, having presided over the ruthless modernisation of the early 1930s, the Great Purges later in the decade, the near-catastrophe and ultimate victory of World War II, and the country’s post-war emergence as a superpower. He was surrounded by a cult that made him seem godlike; no successors were in sight. His death was bound to be a deeply unsettling event, both in the Soviet Union and elsewhere.

In The Death of Stalin, Sheila Fitzpatrick draws on her unparalleled knowledge of Stalin’s circle and Soviet society to tell a tale that blends black comedy with forensic analysis of the problems and opportunities – often missed – created by the death of the dictator. The final chapter deals with Stalin’s eventful afterlife, including his recent resurrection in Putin’s Russia. This is both a riveting read and a salutary one.

‘Fascinating… Perhaps the world’s foremost historian of the Soviet era gives us the full darkly comic but grisly details of Stalin’s last days’ - Christopher Hart, The Mail on Sunday

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