On Stalin's Team

The first chronicle of Stalin's inner political and social circle--from a leading Soviet historian

Stalin was the unchallenged dictator of the Soviet Union for so long that most historians have dismissed the officials surrounding him as mere yes-men and political window dressing. On Stalin's Team overturns this view, revealing that behind Stalin was a group of loyal men who formed a remarkably effective team with him from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. Drawing on extensive original research, Sheila Fitzpatrick provides the first in-depth account of this inner circle and their families. She vividly describes how these dedicated comrades-in-arms not only worked closely with Stalin, but also constituted his social circle. Stalin's team included the wily security chief Beria; Andreev, who traveled to provincial purges while listening to Beethoven on a portable gramophone; and Khrushchev, who finally disbanded the team four years after Stalin's death. Taking readers from the cataclysms of the Great Purges and World War II to the paranoia of Stalin's final years, On Stalin's Team paints an entirely new picture of Stalin within his milieu--one that transforms our understanding of how the Soviet Union was ruled during much of its existence.

Prima cronica a cercului politic si social interior al lui Stalin - de la un istoric sovietic de varf, Stalin a fost dictatorul necontestat al Uniunii Sovietice atat de mult timp incat majoritatea istoricilor i-au demis pe oficialii din jurul sau drept simpli barbati da si vitrine politice. Echipa lui Stalin rastoarna aceasta conceptie, dezvaluind ca in spatele lui Stalin se afla un grup de oameni loiali care au format o echipa remarcabil de eficienta de la sfarsitul anilor 1920 pana la moartea sa in 1953.