Reddit reviews Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

So ANOTHER biggish problem is the Stalin section -

The story of Stalin here is ,essentially, the Trotsky version. The scheming, plotting, just kinda randomly came into power, was never an heir or protege of Lenin.

Of course the Stalinist version of Stalin isn't accurate either.

Here's what I can add to this :

• Stalin was made a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee in 1905 by - one guess here - Lenin. Other Bolsheviks objected to Stalin being involved in robberies, Lenin reportedly said that a man of action was exactly what the party needed.
  
  
• Stalin came back from Siberian exile a little before Lenin came back from Switzerland, and he was pretty indispensable, despite not being very visible.
  
  
• During the civil war, Stalin displayed an ability to both blame shift when things when wrong and to get things done. He was 100% ruthless in how he did it, but he did do it. This ruthlessness extended to fellow Bolsheviks as well as to everyone else. Whether or not Lenin knew or cared about the blame-shifting part doesn't seemed to have affected Stalin because....
  
  
• Lenin specially created the General Secretary position for Stalin. Since the RSFSR/USSR was already a single party state that had outlawed factionalism inside the party, this was an incredibly powerful position. And there's no way Lenin didn't know that. Note that this wasn't in 1917 like the comic book portrays but in the 1920s.
  
  
• Stalin's relationship with Kamenev and Zinoviev wasn't nearly as neat as the comic shows. For example Kamenev and Zinoviev were two of the backers of a plot/thing to try and remove Stalin using the (maybe forged maybe not) Lenin's Testament (not actually called as such on the paper). I'm not sure if that was one of the still secret documents when the comic was made, so I don't know if its right to call them out for not knowing about it.
  
  
• There's nothing really unusual about Stalin getting Trotsky's friends fired. That was pretty standard for the Bolsheviks post-civil war.
  
  
• Stalin didn't, maybe, consider Trotsky a rival. As Kotkin put things "...Trotsky proved to be less the obstacle to than the instrument of Stalin's aggrandizement.... Stalin needed "opposition" to consolidate his personal dictatorship - and he found it." I must say I also object to Trotsky wearing Stalin-esque garb (what came to be called the Vozhdika I think, leader clothes) when Trotsky had a major preference for Western style suits.
  
  
• Stalin did not grab Lenin's power. It was handed to him, by Lenin.
  
  
  All I got to say about that. Other than read Kotkin's book if you haven't already.

What you're looking for is the first book of the Stalin trilogy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalin-Paradoxes-1878-1928-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/1594203792/ref=sr_1_2?crid=23KDC6NFEEFH4&keywords=kotkin+stalin+volume+3&qid=1573896635&s=books&sprefix=kotkin%2Cstripbooks%2C199&sr=1-2

Yes it's 900 pages but it's amazing. I actually put off listening to Hardcore history because I was reading this and didn't want to be interrupted. I'm about to read the second book, which is about the 1930-41 period and expect it to be just as good.

As far as Stalin biographies go, I would recommend you read volume one of Stephen Kotkin's three part bio on him. Here's the link:

Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594203792/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_EsJfvb01P8RMZ

It's very interesting, and definitely not dry at at all.

Edit: Additionally there is also Oxford's History of the Soviet Union post-1945, although seeing as I haven't had the chance to read it yet I can't tell you just how readable it actually is.

Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0192803190/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_WuJfvb0JSYHNT

[New biography of Stalin] (http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Volume-Paradoxes-Power-1878-1928/dp/1594203792)