Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 By Stephen Kotkin

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Pulitzer Prize-finalist Stephen Kotkin has written the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin, from collectivization and the Great Terror to the conflict with Hitler's Germany that is the signal event of modern world history In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of the world’s largest peasant economy into “socialist modernity,” otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost. What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa. The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. But Stalin did not flinch. By 1934, when the Soviet Union had stabilized and socialism had been implanted in the countryside, praise for his stunning anti-capitalist success came from all quarters. Stalin, however, never forgave and never forgot, with shocking consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite of young strivers like himself. Stalin’s obsessions drove him to execute nearly a million people, including the military leadership, diplomatic and intelligence officials, and innumerable leading lights in culture. While Stalin revived a great power, building a formidable industrialized military, the Soviet Union was effectively alone and surrounded by perceived enemies. The quest for security would bring Soviet Communism to a shocking and improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain would not unfold as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective dictatorships, drew ever closer to collision, as the world hung in the balance. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is a history of the world during the build-up to its most fateful hour, from the vantage point of Stalin’s seat of power. It is a landmark achievement in the annals of historical scholarship, and in the art of biography.

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Volume II of Stephen Kotkin’s STALIN: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 picks up where the scholar left off, cataloging the 20th century’s most successful and ruthless dictator’s consolidation of power. In urban areas this meant building factories and marginalizing enemies. In rural areas it included forced collectivization—undoing the land distribution of hundreds of millions of acres seized by peasants since the revolution. Most importantly it meant enforcing one man's interpretation of Communist doctrine upon 160 million people in a country that spanned 13 time zones. Dragging them into the 20th century and the first rank of world power by any means was no mean feat. Some would call it madness or impossible. Kotkin characterizes it as a triumph of will.The author expands upon Volume I’s paradoxes: there simply was never enough power to be had. As power is accumulated, so too are enemies. That requires more power, which requires more purging. It’s an unending cycle of exile, arrest or murder. Compounded by the sheer magnitude of his task (bringing Russia to the Modern Era in a decade rather than a generation) and the size of the country, the table is set for disasters of epic proportions. As his personality spirals into sociopathic paranoia, Stalin produces catastrophe after catastrophe that includes a body count that is truly mind-boggling. He also achieved some spectacular successes and the biography is richer for the fact that Kotkin is always prepared to give the devil his due. Waiting for Hitler is a triumph of scholarship over polemics.The book begins with the exile of Trotsky, and the “neutering” of Bukharin (an erstwhile ally), and exile of Rykov and Tomsky from the Politburo. Stalin is by 1929 already decisively moving against his enemies—rightists who support Lenin’s New Economic Plan or others simply charismatic and therefore a threat to the cult of Stalin (unofficially launched during his 50th birthday commemoration.) Stalin is a master at both pity and self-promotion—constantly bewailing the “attacks” of others while cutting them off at the knees. By 1930 Stalin has honed bloody skills he will use effectively for more than 20 additional years in power.Increasingly in the public imagination and Stalin’s mind, he and the state become one. An affront to Communism is an affront to Stalin and vice-versa. Therefore, the existence of Kulaks, well-to-do peasants who benefited from the breakup of aristocratic estates are deemed a “rightist” deviation—an obstacle to collectivization and must be eliminated. Indeed, any and all who resist are enemies of the state and its leader and must be forced to submit or eliminated. To the shock (and awe) of all, particularly those who supported Lenin’s more tolerant New Economic Plan, there simply was no middle ground.Forced collectivization, dislocation from the land, the ensuing peasant revolt (they slaughtered their livestock rather than let the state confiscate it) and bad harvests combined to pose a serious threat to Stalin’s power. Indeed, 1932 is one of the few times Stalin vacillates and backs down on policy, making course “adjustments”. Still, the whispers that Stalin had to go continued. To counter the whispers, purges are ratcheted up along with everyone's paranoia. The political corpses literally pileup by the tens and hundreds of thousands.These numbers are nothing in comparison to the starvation count in rural Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakh provinces. Seven to ten million estimated dead. Families cannibalizing family members. Orphans murdered to be eaten. All because Stalin refused to admit error and abandon the collective. Worse still he would not import grain to relieve the suffering because opponents of his regime would use it to depict communism as a failure. The author states unequivocally this was a disaster of one man's making and largely avoidable had Stalin even a smidgeon of compassion. While Kotkin’s detailed accounts make for great history it is both exhausting and at times numbing. Waiting for Hitler depressingly summons to mind Hannah Arendt’s remark about the banality of evil.By 1934-1935 the economy is on track in a remarkable comeback. It is around this time he begins to experience the adulation of the masses which Kotkin makes clear while exaggerated by the Party was also based on a fundamental truth--the Russian people loved Papa. In the cat bird's seat, Stalin strikes, remaking the Party entirely in his image, often using the assassination of Sergei Kirov as an excuse to cleanse. The 30s show trials section was most interesting and perhaps the most psychologically revealing. Murder and purging become spectacle, modern-day cousin to a Roman circus where the outcome of the show is a foregone conclusion. Witnessing the narcissistic preening, and his opponents robotic recanting (in the hopes of at least saving their families from the same fate) is fascinating in the way a train wreck is riveting. The carnage is horrific but you can’t look away. The sense of fear and intimidation is palpable.The third section of Waiting For Hitler covers the geopolitical scene of the 1930s with the particular focus on Germany and Hitler. Again, Kotkin's analysis is astute and multi-dimensional. Russia will be able to survive the Nazi onslaught to come in large part because of Stalin's remarkable modernization. However murdering your experienced generals and colonels in fits of political pique only a year or two before invasion does nothing to improve your odds of survival. Also, considering everyone knew it was just a matter of time, Russia was caught surprisingly flat-footed when the moment comes. Perhaps blitzkrieg doesn't translate to Russian.Like its predecessor, volume II is a scholarly work. It is accessible to the amateur historian but at 900 plus pages and with thousands and thousands of footnotes it is not any person's idea of a light read. It is a commitment. Its cast of characters is like a Cecil B. DeMille production and not always easy to keep straight. Also, the detail and documentation, necessary to scholarship is also occasionally a drag—more than once I found myself thinking “O god, another plenum; another purge; another footnote.” Stalin’s life provides new meaning to the cliché “been there; done that.” That said, Waiting For Hitler will be one of those essential tomes of 20th century politics and history. I am very, very glad I read it, and a little bit glad it’s over.

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