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Article: Stalin: Man and Ruler.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 10, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 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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STALIN: MAN AND RULER. By Robert
McNeal. New York University Press; 389
pages; $34.95. Macmillan; 16.95 [British pounds]
THE determination of Mr Mikhail Gorbachev to tell more of the truth about Russia's grim past means that history, in the shape of Uncle joe Stalin, has come back to haunt the country. A new biography of the Great Dictator is therefore well, timed, although Mr McNeal's dispassionate history pales beside the passion of the debate about Stalin that now rages in Russia.
Stalin was already a bit of a lout and a bully in his early politicking in Georgia. He eventually turned into a clever political infighter who equally ...