Reputations
1 total work
Stalin has been vilified and adored. It is difficult to think of many other historical figures who have attracted such an extreme polarity of opinion. In part of course this is because he became a potent symbol in the 20th-century's major ideological struggle - between "capitalism" and "socialism". It is unsurprising that it has been difficult for most observers, including most historians, to be neutral. Only now, in the wake of the collapse of the Stalinist system and the end of the Cold War, is it possible to begin dispassionate evaluation. This study sees Stalin, in fact, as something of a cipher: infinitely more potent as an "idea" than he ever was as an individual. The result is a cultural and intellectual history, which examines how Stalin was "created", mythologized and demonized.