Stalin's Letters to Molotov, 1925-1936

Abstract

"It is thus important to a) fundamentally purge the Finance and Gosbank bureaucracy, despite the wails of dubious Communists like Briukhanov-Piatakov; b) definitely shoot two or three dozen wreckers from these apparaty, including several dozen common cashiers."-- J. Stalin, no earlier than 6 August 1930"Today I read the section on international affairs. It came out well. The confident, contemptuous tone with respect to the great powers, the belief in our own strength, the delicate but plain spitting in the pot of the swaggering great powers--very good. Let them eat it."--J. Stalin, January 1933 Between 1925 and 1936, a dramatic period of transformation within the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin wrote frequently to his trusted friend and political colleague Viacheslav Molotov, Politburo member, chairman of the USSR Council of Commissars, and minister of foreign affairs. In these letters, Stalin mused on political events, argued with fellow Politburo members, and issued orders. The more than 85 letters collected in this volume constitute a unique historical record of Stalins thinking--both personal and political--and throw valuable light on the way he controlled the government, plotted the overthrow of his enemies, and imagined the future. This formerly top secret correspondence, once housed in Soviet archives, is now published for the first time.The letters reveal Stalin in many different and dramatic situations: fighting against party rivals like Trotsky and Bukharin, trying to maneuver in the rapids of the Chinese revolution, negotiating with the West, insisting on the completion of all-out collectivization, and ordering the execution of scapegoats for economic failures. And they provide important and fascinating information about the Soviet Unions party-state leadership, about party politics, and about Stalin himself--as an administrator, as a Bolshevik, and as an individual. The book includes much supplementary material that places the letters in context. Russian editor Oleg V. Naumov and his associates have annotated the letters, introduced each chronological section, and added other archival documents that help explain the correspondence. American editor Lars T. Lih has provided a lengthy introduction identifying what is new in the letters and using them to draw a portrait of Stalin as leader. Lih points out how the letters help us grasp Stalins unique blend of cynicism and belief, manipulation and sincerity--a combination of qualities with catastrophic consequences for Soviet Russia and the world."The letters cast much light on how Stalin went about running the Soviet state during those years....The Stalin of the letters... was an astute and effective leader who . . . was totally devoid of the most elementary human feeling for those who fell victim to one or another of his political designs."--Robert C. Tucker, from the Foreword "The first seventy letters in the book--written between 1925 and 1930--bring out more vividly than ever before Stalins unrelenting concentration on power and the maneuvers with which he outwitted his rivals. At the same time, the frankness with which he writes to Molotov and the reliance he places on him make Stalin more credible as a human being. The remaining letters--from 1930 to 1936--show him becoming the suspicious despot of the purges. Taken together, these previously unpublished secret letters are arguably the most revealing documents from the Soviet archives yet available in the West."--Alan Bullock, author of Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives.Lars T. Lih is the author of Bread and Authority in Russia, 1914-1921. He is working on a study of bolshevism. Oleg V. Naumov is assistant director of the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Recent History in Moscow.Annals of Communism series