
Stalin
Breaker of Nations
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Narrated by:
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Frederick Davidson
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By:
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Robert Conquest
In this book, the first to draw from recently released archives, Robert Conquest gives us Stalin as a child and student; as a revolutionary and communist theoretician; as a political animal skilled in amassing power and absolutely ruthless in maintaining it. He presents the landmarks of Stalin's rule: the clash with Lenin; collectivization; the Great Terror; the Nazi-Soviet pact and the Nazi-Soviet war; the anti-Semitic campaign that preceded his death; and the legacy he left behind.
Distilling a lifetime's study, weaving detail, analysis, and research, Conquest has given us an extraordinarily powerful narrative of this incredible figure.
©1991 Robert Conquest (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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A Portrait of a Lovecraftian Human Monster
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To these and anyone who implacably would fall into such rank I recommend this book.
Stalin as the book in such detail sets out was psychotic. Lenin even attempted to warn the Politburo and fellow revolutionaries of Stalins delusions before his death but too late.
He killed millions. He tortured millions of his own people, Georgians, Ukrainians (in the holodomor) his own soldiers returning from Germany and his own family. Great book of a loathsome creature.
A good comprehensive story of one of the most if not the most paranoid and ruthless individuals in history.
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After an hour, you are instructed to "Go to Disc 2...".
I am constantly changing the volume of my car radio or my iPhone as I listen. In some ways, it is like watching a commercial on TNT where you get blown out by the advertisers, and then have to increase the volume to hear what Brenda is saying to Provenza.
I will finish this interesting book, but it is distracting.
Poor recording quality
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Wonderful fascinating book
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A little unbalanced- but essential reading.
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Fascinating, critically important and timeless
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Fantastic
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I hope Conquest's many other books, including The Great Terror and The Harvest of Sorrow, will become available on Audible.
Great 1991 Study on Stalin fka Dzhugashvili
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While Mr Conquest describes this book as more of a portrait than a biography, I found it to be both fascinating and very informative. This was not the first biography of Stalin that I had read, but it was the most informative and the most complete as it covers his political life from his time as a bank robber and petty criminal through his death in 1953. While the entire book is interesting, it was particularly so for me in explaining the process of Stalin’s destruction of his rivals (Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev, Kirov, Zinoviev and many others) during the late 1920s and the 1930s as well as how he ended up dominating the entire Communist power structure in such a way that he had no real rivals left by the start of World War 2. Any description of Stalin’s policies has to be replete with the horrors of his rule, but some events serve as a perfect example of the capriciousness of his governing. One of these is the story of the Soviet census taken during the 1930s. Millions had died during the great Soviet famine, brought on my the forced collectivization of the farms, and the census results showed this. Stalin denied that there had been a famine and so any census results showing a drop in population had to be another example of spies plotting against the state and therefore cause for the execution of those involved. Life was indeed precarious during Stalin’s time. A second census taken after the execution of those involved in the first did not show the drop in population since those taking it knew the punishment given to those who took the first one, and this is one example of how much care must be exercised in viewing Soviet statistics from that time period.
While the book covers The Great Terror lightly those wanting more information on it probably should consider buying Mr Conquest’s book on that subject. For those interested in a less in-depth view of how the Communist State became established, this is a wonderful source and highlights how much of a change took place right after Stalin’s death, only for a form of Stalinism to be reinstated a decade later.
Mr Conquest was born a British citizen so readers should expect that he would write using a British form of English. The narration by Frederick Davidson (David Chase) is first class, but he, as well, was English and hence his pronunciation is also English. One reviewer complained that he mispronounced the word “cadre” as “CAD-er”, but that is a proper regional British pronunciation of the word and hence should be expected. I found the narration clear and compelling and I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the life of Joseph Stalin and an overview of both the development of the Russian Revolution into Stalinism as well as the terrible events of the 1930s.
Superb
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It is very hard to understand anything they say,especially names.
Listen before you buy
A bid you adieu
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