Who was Josef Stalin? An evil dictator who murdered millions? Or a geo-political giant who dominated the Soviet Union and the world stage? Stephen Kotkin leans toward the latter interpretation in Stalin: paradoxes of power, 1878-1928. In this first volume of an epic trilogy, Kotkin suggests that Stalin was “an indomitable Communist and leader of inner strength,... Continue Reading →
Stalin’s Englishman: the lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie
The story of the Cambridge Spy Ring, or the Magnifivent Five as they were dubbed by the media, continues to be of interest, long after the Cold War ended. How did this group of young, wealthy, Cambridge University students fall into the clutches of the Soviet Union during the 1930s? The reality is that Burgess,... Continue Reading →
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
How to you investigate a crime, when even the possibility of crime does not exist? In Stalin’s Soviet Union in the years following the Second World War, the illusion of the state was that of a worker’s Utopia. Criminals were a part of the horrors of a Capitalist society, so to even suggest that something... Continue Reading →
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