Josef Stalin

Learning About Stalin from His Books: An Interview with Geoffrey Roberts

by Aaron J. Leonard

Researchers who access Stalin's books will find the dictator's library a source of insight into his political thinking and engagement with ideas (and his pithy marginalia), but not a Rosetta Stone for understanding his capacity for atrocity. 

The Anniversary of Stalin's Death Shows Authoritarianism is Bigger than One Authoritarian

by Julia Ioffe

Liberal Russians reflect on Stalin's death 69 years later and observe parallels with Putin's approach to internal dissent. 

Will Putin Learn from Stalin's Mistakes over Korea?

by Gregory Mitrovich

Stalin's support for the North Korean invasion of the south galvanized Western opposition and ensured that the Cold War would be militarized, instead of remaining a diplomatic and economic conflict. In the long run, the Soviets lost. 

Washington History Seminar – Stalin: Passage to Revolution, Monday, April 12

Ronald Grigor Suny of the University of Michigan joins the Washington History Seminar on Monday, April 12 to discuss "Stalin: Passage to Revolution" at 

The Disbelief and Horror of Election Night Were Captured by a Russian Poet in 1933

by Masha Gessen

It is believed that “Stalin’s Epigram” led to Mandelstam’s arrest, in 1934. The poet died in the Gulag in 1938. Every line is recognizable six decades later.

He Found One of Stalin’s Mass Graves. Now He’s in Jail.

Yuri Dmitriev's family believes he has been jailed on false pedophelia charges because his findings challenge a sanitized version of history favored by Russian nationalists.

Churchill, Stalin and the Legacy of the Grand Alliance: An Interview with Professor Geoffrey Roberts

by Aaron J. Leonard

Geoffrey Roberts assesses the history and legacy of the wartime alliance and political relationship between Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin.

The Truth About Stalin’s Prison Camps

Vera Golubeva spent more than six years in one of Joseph Stalin’s gulag camps. Her crime? “To this day, I still don’t know,” she says.