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In this engaging life of the twentieth century's most self-consciously learned dictator, Geoffrey Roberts explores the books Stalin read, how he read them, and what they taught him. Stalin firmly believed in the transformative potential of words and his voracious appetite for reading guided him throughout his years. A biography as well as an intellectual portrait, this book explores all aspects of Stalin's tumultuous life and politics.0 Stalin, an avid reader from an early age, amassed a surprisingly diverse personal collection of thousands of books, many of which he marked and annotated revealing his intimate thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Based on his wide-ranging research in Russian archives, Roberts tells the story of the creation, fragmentation, and resurrection of Stalin's personal library. As a true believer in communist ideology, Stalin was a fanatical idealist who hated his enemies-the bourgeoisie, kulaks, capitalists, imperialists, reactionaries, counter-revolutionaries, traitors-but detested their ideas even more.… (more)
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Similarly, calling someone an intellectual implies that they at least subjected what they read to independent thought and critical judgment, and again Roberts does not establish that Stalin got beyond 'ours' v 'theirs' (or 'friendly' v hostile') based on pragmatic considerations. Play is also made of the fact that Stalin removed passages of gross flattery from drafts submitted to him for approval and editing, thus showing that he was modest and realistic. This obviously has little to do with his reading in general, and also raises the question of what might have happened to authors who submitted work without flattery.
On the other hand, he is dismissive of Stalin's early poetic productions in Georgian, which I think were in fact anthologised before there was any idea he might become important...