2003-07-20
... ? Telegraph | Arts | Up the greasy pole of terrorWe are only just beginning to grasp the true nature of Stalin's power. Compared to the Hitler state, there are still huge gaps in our understanding of the Stalinist regime. Stalin's personal character is an obvious enigma: it is hard to tell when insane paranoia supplants scheming rationality. But the tyrant's hold on the Bolshevik Party is just as puzzling. Was he a strong or a weak dictator? Did he direct the Terror or did others do it in his name? And how did Stalin's influence infiltrate into the daily lives of those who called themselves the Stalinists?
