Using the materials of Stalin’s personal archive, this book explores the dictator’s “vision” of the world. It considers his vision from two different but complementary perspectives. It begins by addressing the question of how he interpreted information. When one compares the material that he read from week to week with the decisions he subsequently shaped, it is possible to draw conclusions about the way he understood and interpreted that information. The book reveals not only how he perceived the world, but also how he mis-perceived it. It then addresses the question of how Stalin projected h ... More

Using the materials of Stalin’s personal archive, this book explores the dictator’s “vision” of the world. It considers his vision from two different but complementary perspectives. It begins by addressing the question of how he interpreted information. When one compares the material that he read from week to week with the decisions he subsequently shaped, it is possible to draw conclusions about the way he understood and interpreted that information. The book reveals not only how he perceived the world, but also how he mis-perceived it. It then addresses the question of how Stalin projected his vision of the world. It is now clear that Stalin devoted a remarkable amount of time to the business of words, and that he (and not only he) regarded his command over the verbal realm as central to his power more generally. The book investigates the crucial role played by the leader’s carefully crafted spoken and written utterances in the creation and projection of his vision. Stalin’s vision is considered through an examination of several important themes, all of which were at the forefront of the leader’s attention and which continue to occupy the attention of scholars: Bolshevik leadership, spymania, capitalist encirclement, the leader cult, the working class, and Soviet culture.