This attractive, well-illustrated short biography of Stalin is part of a new series featuring prominent historians including Max Hastings and focussing on some of the biggest issues, including the Third Reich, the British Empire and World War One. This book, which could have a been a great, easy introduction to the life of Stalin, is unfortunately a bit of a disaster.

There are three things I really did not like here:

First, Stalin is portrayed as a genuine Marxist, keen to make a better world, and in the course of trying to create a socialist utopia does some pretty awful things. To many historians and biographers of the Soviet leader, this will sound like utter nonsense. One could not write such a thing about Hitler and get away with it — so why is it OK to write this about Stalin?

Second, while the author dismisses in a paragraph claims that Stalin might have been, at one time, an agent of the tsarist police, she devotes an equal amount of space to a rumour (which I’m hearing for the first time) that the exiled Stalin had an affair with a 14 year old girl (he was 34 at the time). Reams of evidence that Stalin had a dodgy relationship with the police are given roughly the same amount of attention as this kind of gossip.

And third, far too many sentences begin with “As so-and-so wrote”, citing other historians and biographers. In my view, this is not how to tell a story. When citing other authors, use footnotes (as this author does) — no need for both. And quotes should really come from primary sources if possible (which really don’t figure much in this popular account).

To sum up: No, Stalin was not an honest socialist intent on making the world a better place. He was a sadistic mass murdering criminal, no better than any other dictator and far worse (in terms of the numbers he murdered) than many reviled fascists.