Böcker av Hiroaki Kuromiya

The Eurasian triangle of Russia, the Caucasus, and Japan is a forgotten history of cardinal importance that, stretching from the Russo-Japanese War to World War II, influenced Western Cold War strategies. This book is also the story of a friendship rare in international politics between two unlikely partners unspoiled by political vicissitudes.

Kuromiya convincingly elucidates the mechanism of the Soviet secret police and explores the minds of non-conformist believers -precursors to the revival of dissidence after Stalin's death in 1953.

Stalin was once described - by Hitler - as "half beast, half giant". How did a man once regarded by his rivals as intellectually inferior come to achieve near-divine status as dictator of the largest country in the world? This biography argues that the key to understanding the enigma of Stalin lies in his unadulterated political ambition.

This is the first political and social history in English of Stalin's industrial revolution during the first Five-Year Plan, 1928-1932. Dr Kuromiya argues that Stalin and his advisers made industrialization politically possible by presenting it as a 'class war', mercilessly suppressing those suspected as 'class enemies' and 'wreckers' and seeking the support of industrial workers.