Robert C. Tucker

Stalin in Power

"To my mind, the most significant single scholarly contribution made to date, anywhere, to the history of Soviet power." —George F. Kennan

"Tucker's contribution is to document how Stalin became a 'revolutionary of the radical right' by consciously turning to history, not to Communist ideology, for his model of the state as the agent of change. . . . This is history as it should be written: compelling narrative, intriguing detail, bold thesis." —Jane E. Good, Washington Post

"Anyone who does not read Stalin in Power from cover to cover will miss the opportunity of gaining real insight into the forces that shaped the Soviet Union. This is the best book about Stalin that has ever been written and one that is not likely to be superseded in the forseeable future." —W. Bruce Lincoln, Chicago Tribune

"Tucker writes psychobiography with tact and common sense, never letting Freud get out of hand, while his narrative holds the reader in grim fascination." —Jane A. Taubman, Los Angeles Times

"Mr. Tucker's portrait is persuasive, not least because it offers a psychological explanation for Stalin's relentless persecution of his Bolshevik comrades as well as for the bizarre rituals of the Moscow show trials, in which he forced the revolution's leaders to confess to absurd crimes." —The Economist

"Mr. Tucker has hunted out the sources, and he has discovered and developed a great deal more than has been generally known. . . . An exteremely valuable contribution to our knowledge." —Robert Conquest, Wall Street Journal