Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books

14. Cited in R. Richardson, The Long Shadow: Inside Stalin’s Family, Little, Brown & Co.: London 1993 p.85.

15. A. Sergeev & E. Glushik, Besedy o Staline, Krymskii Most: Moscow 2006 p.23.

16. ‘Chuzhoi v Sem’e Stalina’, Rossiiskaya Gazeta (12 June 2002). Morozov, who had a distinguished career as an academic specialising in international law, died in 2001.

17. A. H. Birse, Memoirs of an Interpreter, Michael Joseph: London 1967 p.103. Birse was with Churchill, and Stalin’s bedroom was en route to a bathroom where the PM washed his hands.

18. D. Shepilov, The Kremlin’s Scholar, Yale University Press: London & New Haven 2014 p.105.

19. S. Beria, Beria, My Father, Duckworth: London 2001 pp.142–3. This book, which is based on interviews Beria gave to the French historian Françoise Thom, is completely different to one with the same title that he published in Russian: S. Beria, Moi Otets – Lavrentii Beriya, Sovremennik: Moscow 1994.

20. A few of Stalin’s books that he supposedly marked have no discernible markings. Could it be they had tags which have subsequently disintegrated or dropped out or were inadvertently removed by researchers?

21. Zh. & R. Medvedev, Neizvestnyi Stalin, 4th edn, Vremya: Moscow 2011 p.80. In English: R. & Z. Medvedev, The Unknown Stalin, Overlook Press: Woodstock NY 2004 p.97. The English translation states that the books were ordered from the ‘Kremlin Library Service’. These words do not appear in any of the Russian editions of the book.

22. S. Lovell, The Russian Reading Revolution: Print Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke 2000 p.27.

23. P. Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917–1929, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1985 pp.239–47.

24. M. Viltsan, ‘K Voprosu ob Intellekte Stalina’, Pravda-5 (Ezhenedel’naya Gazeta) (27 September–4 October 1996).

25. W. J. Spahr, Stalin’s Lieutenants: A Study of Command under Duress, Presidio Press: Novato CA 1997 pp.154–5. Spahr’s reference is to a novel by the Soviet military journalist and writer Ivan Stadniuk, Voina (War), published in 1981. While the story rings true, there are no known copies of Shaposhnikov’s book in Stalin’s personal archive. Shaposhnikov’s book was published in three volumes between 1927 and 1929 so the volume that we know Stalin received, presumably towards the end of 1926, must have been a pre-publication advance copy. Shaposhnikov met Stalin about what seems to have been a personal matter in June 1927 (RGASPI, F.558, Op.4, D.5853t, L.11). This out-of-sequence file may be found at the very end of Opis’ 4.

26. N. Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir, Harvill Press: London 1999 p.26.

27. A. V. Ostrovskii, Kto Stoyal za Spinoi Stalina?, Olma-Press: St Petersburg 2002 p.155.

28. The archive document listing the seventy-two books was on display at an exhibition on the history of Stalin’s lichnyi fond in the foyer of RGASPI in October 2018.

29. S. Alliluyeva, 20 Letters to a Friend, Penguin: Harmondsworth 1968 pp.37–8.

30. R. Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter, Fourth Estate: London 2015 p.22.

31. Khlevniuk, Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator, p.252.

32. Their letters may be found in Yu. G. Murin (ed.), Iosif Stalin v Ob”yatiyakh Sem’i, Rodina: Moscow 1993 docs. 30–59.

33. On Polina: K. Schlögel, The Scent of Empires: Chanel No.5 and Red Moscow, Polity: London 2021 pp.96–125.

34. R. Lyuksemburg, Vseobshchaya Zabastovka i Nemetskaya Sotsial-Demokratiya, Kiev 1906. Stalin’s copy: RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.196. Another book in Stalin’s library, one that he marked in a few places, was this anti-Luxemburg tract: I. Narvskii, K Istorii Bor’by Bol’shevizma s Luksemburgianstvom, Partizdat: Moscow 1932 (D.227).