Les biographies de Staline sont nombreuses, certes, mais si l'on attend d'une biographie qu'elle déroule une vie de façon anecdotique en restant fidèle à la véracité des faits, celle de Staline pourrait être multipliée à l'infini sans jamais atteindre ce but. Car que dire sur un homme qui plus qu'aucun autre dans l'histoire a manipulé les éléments biographiques et terrorisé son entourage, proche et éloigné, au point que chacun devait soigneusement mesurer ses mots ; sur un homme qui a réussi à mettre en place un régime aux oreilles multiples et hostiles, au point que même après sa mort, il n'était pas toujours prudent de parler ?
Ici, les éléments biographiques ne sont pas une fin en soi, ils servent également à alimenter une réflexion permettant de mettre en lumière certains aspects d'un personnage dont l'influence a profondément marqué l'Histoire. À travers l'histoire de Staline, la réflexion de Robert Service, au-delà des anecdotes et des récits de témoins, met en lumière la personnalité complexe et la psychologie du dictateur.
Cette biographie est aussi un voyage à travers l'histoire du XXe siècle, en suivant le parcours d'un homme qui l'a profondément marquée. Elle s'inscrit dans la même ligne que Lénine (2011) et de Trotski (2012) et en est la suite logique.
Un siècle après la révolution de 1917, Lénine reste une figure d'une exceptionnelle envergure. Premier historien à avoir eu accès au « dossier Lénine » conservé aux archives soviétiques, Robert Service renouvelle ce que nous pensions savoir de la personnalité complexe de ce révolutionnaire autant glorifié que dénigré.
Quelles furent les influences des premières années de sa vie politique ? Comment, devenu le maître de la Révolution russe, créa-t-il le premier État socialiste du monde, d'où devait naître l'URSS ? En s'interrogeant sur l'État et la société construite sous son égide, cette biographie exemplaire fait le bilan d'un héritage dont la mémoire est toujours vive, malgré l'effondrement du régime soviétique.
La biographie de référence de Léon Trotski (1879-1940), élu " meilleur livre d'histoire 2011 " par le magazine Lire.
Révolutionnaire, chef de guerre, mais aussi écrivain brillant, amoureux des femmes, juif en conflit avec ses racines, icône puis bouc émissaire et victime traquée, Léon Trotski a vécu l'une des vies les plus extraordinaires qui soient. Fondateur de l'Armée rouge, opposant à son rival Staline qui le pourchasse, à partir de 1929, en Turquie, en France puis au Mexique, sa vie s'achève dans un apogée de violence, à l'image de son existence tourmentée. Théoricien " pur " d'apparence, célébré de son vivant et jusqu'aux années 2000 comme un archange de la " bonne " révolution, cet homme aussi monstrueux que génial fut habité par l'obsession du pouvoir, sans jamais parvenir à le conserver.
Vladimir Putin has dominated Russian politics since Boris Yeltsin relinquished the presidency in his favour in May 2000. He served two terms as president, before himself relinquishing the post to his prime minister, Dimitri Medvedev, only to return to presidential power for a third time in 2012. Putin's rule, whether as president or prime minister, has been marked by a steady increase in domestic repression and international assertiveness. Despite this, there have been signs of liberal growth and Putin - and Russia - now faces a far from certain future.In Kremlin Winter, Robert Service, acclaimed biographer of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky and one of our finest historians of modern Russia, brings his deep understanding of that country to bear on the man who leads it. He reveals a premier who cannot take his supremacy for granted, yet is determined to impose his will not only on his closest associates but on society at large. It is a riveting insight into power politics as Russia faces a blizzard of difficulties both at home and abroad.
''A timely and important book . . . he brings to it rare clarity and common sense. His book is a fast-paced account of the last sixteen months of the tsar''s life; brief, sharp, but laced with well-judged feeling for the dramas of the time.'' Catherine Merridale, Observer In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. In this masterful and forensic study, Robert Service examines the last year Nicholas''s reign and the months between that momentous abdication and his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. Drawing on the Tsar''s own diaries and other hitherto unexamined contemporary records, The Last of the Tsars reveals a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political foment in Russia in the aftermath of Alexander Kerensky''s February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and the beginnings of Lenin''s Soviet republic.
The Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in global politics, and until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the stand-off between the two superpowers - after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics and ideas - would end in their lifetimes. Even after March 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union it was not preordained that global nuclear Armageddon could or would be averted peaceably.But just four years later, the Berlin Wall was dismantled and perestroika spread throughout the former Soviet bloc. It was a sea change in world history, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.br>Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the astonishing relationships among President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Secretary of State George Shultz and the USSR's last Foreign Affairs Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, who found a way to cooperate during times of extraordinary change around the world. The story is of American pressure and Soviet long-term decline and over-stretch. The End of the Cold War shows how that small, skillful group of statesmen were determined to end the Cold War on their watch. In the process, they irreversibly transformed the global geopolitical landscape.Authoritative, compelling and meticulously researched, this is political history at its best.
Many years have passed since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Written by a historian of modern Russia, this book sets out to examine the history of communism throughout the world. It shows that although communism in its original form is dead or dying, the poverty and injustice that enabled its rise are dangerously alive.
In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, the Western powers were anxious to prevent the spread of Bolshevism across Europe. Lenin and Trotsky were equally anxious that the Communist vision they were busy introducing in Russia should do just that. But neither side knew anything about the other. The revolution and Russia’s withdrawal from the First World War had ensured a diplomatic exodus from Moscow and the usual routes to vital information had been closed off. Into this void stepped an extraordinary collection of opportunists, journalists and spies – sometimes indeed journalists who were spies and vice versa: in Moscow Britain’s Arthur Ransome, the American John Reed and Sidney Reilly – ‘Ace of Spies’ – all traded information and brokered deals between Russia and the West; in Berlin, Paris and London, the likes of Maxim Litvinov, Adolf Ioffe and Kamenev tried to infiltrate the political elite and influence foreign policy to the Bolsheviks' advantage. Robert Service, acclaimed historian and one of our finest commentators on matters Soviet, turns his meticulous eye to this ragtag group of people and, with narrative flair and impeccable research, reveals one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century.
