Geoffrey Roberts is emeritus professor of history at University College Cork and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. A leading Soviet history expert, his many books include an award-winning biography of Zhukov, Stalin’s general, and the acclaimed Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War.
“A truly fascinating study that leaves no doubt that Stalin took
ideas as seriously as political power itself.”—Tony Barber,
Financial Times
“[A] fascinating new study.”—Michael O’Donnell, Wall Street
Journal
“Fascinating in parts. . . . Perhaps the biggest insight his book
collection offers is that [Stalin] was a diligent, reverential and
genuinely enthusiastic reader of works by Lenin.”—Amelia Gentleman,
The Guardian
“Roberts has produced a relatively compact, engagingly written
study of the Soviet leader as an intellectual. . . . Basing his
interpretation both on what Stalin read and on how he did so, the
author contends we can not only ‘get to know him from the outside
in,’ but also ‘glimpse the world through his eyes.’ . . . . The
world glimpsed through his eyes was a frightening place. It has
become so again. Whether or not dictators of Stalin’s ilk will
emerge once more, they are unlikely to be as well read.”—Lewis H.
Siegelbaum, Times Literary Supplement
“In its examination of Stalin’s debts to the books he read, this is
a pioneering work of scholarship. . . . The core of this book is a
longer chapter detailing his pometki—the markings he made in the
volumes he read. . . . The significance of these markings—and the
chief value of Robert’s book—is in what they tell us of the
workings of Stalin’s mind.”—John Gray, New Statesman
“Stalin’s Library is ‘among the best means we have of accessing the
dictator’s inner life’ and Geoffrey Roberts does so admirably and
revealingly here.”—Brian Maye, Irish Times
“Can one define a life from a personal library? Geoffrey Roberts,
an expert on Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, thinks you can. Such
analysis is particularly relevant as Stalin did not keep a diary
nor write a memoir.”—Colin Steele, Canberra Times
“Written in a lively and attractive style, [Stalin’s Library]
provides substantial and judicious background material about
Stalin’s career and his known interventions in film, literature,
and foreign policy that will be new to Stalin specialists and
interesting for non-specialists, advanced undergraduates, and for
the general public.”—J. Arch Getty, Slavic Review
“Stalin’s Library tilts our image of a paranoid killer interested
only in power towards a more nuanced—but even scarier—one: of a
deep thinker prepared to turn his ideas into bullets.”—Nigel Jones,
Spectator
“Interpreting the reasons for Stalin’s reactions, usually negative,
to what he was reading, and assessing the influence of his reading
on his decision-making skills are tasks that demand not just the
encyclopedic knowledge that Roberts has of his subject but also the
intuition of a psychologist of genius.”—Donald Rayfield, Literary
Review
“Offers a new perspective on the dictator: his intellectual
curiosity, his reading, his studying and his accumulation of 25,000
books along with journals and pamphlets. . . . Roberts uses the
library as a way in to a wider discussion of Soviet arts and
culture.”—Vin Arthey, The Scotsman
“New books on Russian history include two Stalin-related ones, the
Georgian dictator remaining ever popular as a subject of interest.
. . . I was particularly intrigued by the one on his voracious
reading habits: Stalin’s Library: A Dictator and His Books.”—Sophie
Roell, Five Books, “Notable Nonfiction of Early 2022”
“Roberts’ book is dedicated to getting beyond the ‘moral revulsion’
and understanding how Stalin did what he did.”—Noonie Minogue, The
Tablet
“Through seven chapters of closely argued analysis,
part-chronological, part-thematic, Roberts builds up the picture of
a three-dimensional Stalin, at times abrupt and dogmatic, at others
reflective and even self-critical; nor is he humourless. . . . It’s
an intriguing infill of detail, a niche presentation or a sidelight
shone on a titan of political power well within living
memory.”—Basil Ransome-Davies, Shiny New Books
“A balanced and informative book, in which Roberts punctures many
myths about Stalin. A mustread for anyone interested in an
accurate, non-partisan history of Stalin’s Soviet Union and the
Stalin phenomenon.”—John Green, Morning Star
“Analyses the extensive marginalia Stalin left in hundreds of
books. They reveal that intellectual engagement is not incompatible
with ruthless megalomania.”—George Garnett, History Today, “Books
of 2022”
“Roberts . . . makes a compelling case that through an examination
of his books and pometki, it is possible to build ‘a composite,
nuanced picture of the reading life of Stalin.’”—William A. Clark,
Europe-Asia Studies
“It is the rigorous yet lively analysis of the library itself—from
surveys of its holdings to deciphering markings on individual
pages—that holds the greatest appeal for historians of the book and
of the Soviet Union alike.”—Polly Jones, English Historical
Review
“Stalin was a lifelong reader of astonishing stamina and range. In
this shrewd and compelling exploration, Geoffrey Roberts finds the
key to understanding the despot and his despotism hidden in plain
sight in the pages of his books. The love of reading drew Stalin to
the revolution and gave him the intellectual assurance that all his
ruthless violence was both necessary and justified. Stalin’s
Library offers a new and fascinating depth of insight into the mind
of a fanatic.”—Rachel Polonsky, author of Molotov’s Magic
Lantern
“Innovative and intriguing: the warlord and mass-murderer as
bookworm, librarian and intellectual. A fascinating read.”—David
Reynolds, coauthor of The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime
Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt
“A German philosopher once said, ‘Tell me how you read and I’ll
tell you who you are.’ Geoffrey Roberts’s study of the remains of
Stalin’s library, and the angry exclamations and demanding queries
made by the tyrant’s blue pencil in the margins (and sometimes
whole rewritten pages) reveals Stalin as a fanatical proof-reader,
a phenomenally gifted interrogator of other persons’
opinions.”—Donald Rayfield, author of Stalin and His Hangmen
“This fascinating, original, and meticulously researched study of
Stalin’s library offers penetrating insight into the mind of a
dictator who valued ideas as much as power. In exploring Stalin as
an avid reader of books, Roberts punctures many myths about the
man.”—Stephen Smith, author of Russia in Revolution
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