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Article: So long as he loved his mum; Josef Stalin.(Biography)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 8, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Tender Stalin with daughter
Attempting to put a human face on him
IN HIS still unequalled 1991 biography, "Stalin: Breaker of Nations", Robert Conquest found that there was "something in [Stalin's] character best thought of as an absence of life in its fullest sense." He called the Soviet dictator a "vast, dark figure looming over the century", defined mainly by a capacity for murder and deceit. A biographer often became attached to a subject, Mr Conquest said, but with Stalin it was "probably impossible to have that sort of sympathetic relationship".
On this last point at least, Robert Service has proved Mr Conquest wrong. In "Stalin: A ...