Anmerkungen Zu Stalin (Notes on Stalin)

Wolfgang Leonhard Anmerkungen zu Stalin (Notes On Stalin) Rowohlt·Berlin, March 2009, 192 pp. ISBN: 978 3 87134 635 4 A take on modern-day Russia through its view of the past Wolfgang Leonhard is a former professor of Communist Further stratagems included isolating and excluding rivals History and spent his youth in exile in Moscow, having from the party, increasing bureaucracy to break the workers’ fled Germany in 9 with his Communist mother. He felt solidarity, and amending the basic tenets established by moved to write this book when it struck him that modern- Marx and Engels. day Russia has rewritten the history of one of the 0th century’s most fearsome dictators, Joseph Stalin. A 008 poll Between four and seven million people fell victim to by a Russian state radio station revealed that Stalin was Stalin’s political ‘cleansing’ between 9 and 98 considered ‘Russia’s most significant historical personality’. (including Leonhard’s own mother, who was banished to Under Putin, the country’s History curriculum was changed a prison camp): between five and ten thousand people to portray Stalin as a hero rather than a murderer. Leonhard were arrested in the Soviet Union each day and hundreds puts this down to the collapse of the Soviet Union and of thousands died. While the aims of Stalin’s terror were to Russia’s search for something to hold on to. As one of few annihilate his enemies and personal opponents, this practice remaining survivors of the Stalinist regime as well as an eventually became an end in itself. This greatly weakened expert on the topic, he is well-placed to contribute to the Red Army, many generals with tactical knowledge being the debate. killed or imprisoned. Leonhard describes Stalin’s perplexity when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and his Charting the rise and fall of Stalin, from the death of Lenin ultimate downfall. in 9 to his own death in 9, Leonard makes it clear that the book is not intended as a biography of Stalin, If Stalin is declared a great leader nowadays, writes but rather as a summary and exploration of his regime. Leonhard, it is both an insult to his millions of victims and The book describes how Stalin catapulted himself to the also a political danger for today. His points are argued with top of the Bolshevist Party after Lenin’s death, thanks to the passion of one who knew the Stalinist regime all too his pragmatic approach and feeling for the public mood. well, yet with the balance and lucidity of the academic he is. Wolfgang (orig. Wolodja) Leonhard Previous works include: Translation rights available from: was born in 1921, the son of the Soviet The standard works Die Revolution Rowohlt Verlag ambassador in Vienna. Fleeing the entläßt ihre Kinder (1955, Hamburger Strasse 17 Nazis, he lived in exile in Moscow from Kiepenheuer & Witsch) and Meine 21465 Reinbek, Germany 1935. From 1943 he was a member Geschichte der DDR (2007, Tel: +49 40 72 72-257 of the National Committee for a Free Rowohlt·Berlin). Email: [email protected] Germany, an anti-Nazi organisation Contact: Carolin Kettmann that operated in the Soviet Union Translated editions of previous www.rowohlt.de during World War Two. In early May works include: Arabic; English (UK 1945 he returned to Berlin with the and USA); Finnish; French; Japanese; Rowohlt Verlag was founded Ulbricht Group (a group of exiled Marathi; Dutch; Hungarian; Russian; by Ernst Rowohlt in 1908. With its German communists who played an Swedish; and Spanish. various divisions it is now part of © Steffen Judzikowski © Steffen Judzikowski important role in post-war work in the Holtzbrinck group. Rowohlt Germany) and worked as a lecturer at Application for assistance with publishes literary fiction, non-fiction the academy of the SED political party. translation costs – Germany and children’s books. Authors include After breaking with Stalinism he fled to Wolfgang Borchert, Joachim Fest, West Germany via Yugoslavia in 1949. ‘A personal reckoning…in the best Elfriede Jelinek, Daniel Kehlmann, Imre Since then he has been regarded as possible sense.’ – Die Zeit Kertész, Ildikó von Kürthy, Klaus and one of the leading experts in the West Erika Mann, Peter Schneider, Martin ‘ An eloquent plea against the reviving on the East, teaching for over twenty Walser and many others. Last year it of the myth of Stalin and for the years as Professor of the History of celebrated its 100th anniversary. reviewing of Soviet history.’ – Die Welt Communism at Yale University. NON-FICTION 9.

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