The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life - Hardcover

Brackman, Roman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714650501 ISBN 13: 9780714650500

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

This account of Stalin's life begins with his early years, the family breakup caused by the suspicion that the boy was the result of an adulterous affair, the abuse by his father and the growth of the traumatized boy into criminal, spy, and finally one of the 20th century's political monsters.

About this title

About the Author

Roman Brackman was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1931. In 1935 his father, an engineer, was imprisoned in Gulag camp near Dmitrov. As a boy Roman stayed for weeks with his father in the camp’s barracks and saw the barb wire, watch towers and columns of prisoners going to and from work. He grew up during the Great Purges when many of his relatives were arrested and perished. He graduated from high school in 1948 and enrolled in the Moscow Oriental Institute, Arabic division. In 1949 Roman and two of his school friends tried to escape from the Soviet Union by swimming from the Black Sea port Batumi to Turkey. They were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in Special Political prison camps. Roman was sent to Norylsk Gulag where he took an active part in prisoners’ uprising in the summer of 1953 only to be released in 1955 in the first post-Stalin amnesty. In 1959 Roman managed to leave the Soviet Union legally - his wife was a Polish citizen. In 1962 he, his wife and their two sons immigrated to the United States. In 1965 Roman graduated from City College of New York with bachelor degree in science and in 1980 he received the doctorate degree in history from New York University. During Carter-Reagan election campaign in 1979-1980 Roman published his first book “Jimmy Carter Provocateur-in-Chief.” The first edition of his book “The Secret File of Joseph Stalin - A Hidden Life” was published in 2001 in London and translated to several languages, including Russian.

Review

'Brackman has done a vaulable service in piecing together the fragmentary information about Stalins record from the published sources ... interesting book.' - Times Literary Supplement

'There is much in The Secret File of Joseph Stalin that challenges conventional interpretation of Stalins dictatorship ... his claim that Stalin had been an Okhrana agent also deserves to be taken seriously.' - Christopher Andrews, The Sunday Times

'This is an engaging and provocative psychological study of Stalin. The book has a good index and biliography and is recommended to the general public.' - Choice

'Poor Stalin: he murdered, poisoned and tortured tens of thousands of Bolsheviks in order to keep his secrets, and yet Roman Brackman is able to disclose and prove them all ... Brackmans extensive, systematic research into Stalin's crime presents us with a well-written history of events leading to the 1917 Communist Revolution and the subsequent developments.'
- The Jerusalem Post

'This book is an important contribution to the historical record.' - The Russian Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714650501
• ISBN 13: 9780714650500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 486