Stalin And Mao Biographies

[CCCPneubauten]

Well, as the title suggests I am looking for a biography on either Stalin or Mao, but thwat I'm not looking for is a biography is is just bashing them. I'd like a center or left wing view of them in a biography. Not one that's like 'They are all horrible killers who iced *insert fake number here* people!"

Any help would be great.

[Intelligitimate]

Ian Grey's Stalin: Man of History is what I would consider an relatively unbiased account. Grey is not a Marxist, and says so upfront, but he gives Stalin his due. Grey heavily focuses on Stalin during WW2 in the later half of the book, but the first half does cover everything else.

If you want an extremely pro-Stalin account, check out Ludo Martens' Another View of Stalin (http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/book.html). It is not exactly a biography, but does go over the history of most of his life.

For a very anti-Stalin biography written by a humanist-Marxist type, check out Robert Tucker's two books, Stalin in Power and Stalin as revolutionary. I think there were supposed to be three parts to this series, but he died before finishing it. In any case, Tucker is not quite as stupid as most anti-communist 'scholars,' so I would recommend his account if you want something negative.

[RedGeorge]

"Stalin" by Robert Service. Extremely fair, very detailed biography. Well over 600 pages long, but gripping none the less.

[Comrade Marcel]

Get anything from the USSR that was written before he died.

[Mesijs]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 21 2006, 01:19 PM
Get anything from the USSR that was written before he died.
That isn't unbiased.

[FinnMacCool]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 21 2006, 08:19 AM
Get anything from the USSR that was written before he died.
LOL no. . .thats all propaganda.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2006, 02:33 AM
Well, as the title suggests I am looking for a biography on either Stalin or Mao, but thwat I'm not looking for is a biography is is just bashing them. I'd like a center or left wing view of them in a biography. Not one that's like 'They are all horrible killers who iced *insert fake number here* people!"

Any help would be great.
Hmmm...

While it is not directly a Mao biography, Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow (an unbiased American journalist) has several chapters devoted to Snow's observations of Mao and his life, as well countless interviews with Chairman Mao. The book was written during the Chinese revolution, so it really graphically tells what the revolution was like. He's also got several other books such as The Other Side of the River (which was written after the revolution), and The Long Revolution (which covers the Cultural Revolution as he saw it in 1972). I haven't read the later two, but they're supposed to be pretty good (I'm not sure how much they cover Chairman Mao himself though).

Another book which is devoted to Mao and Mao's ideology is Avakian's Mao Tse Tung's Immortal Contributions. It's pretty old though, so it's semi-hard to find. Look online, or if there's a Revolution Books in your town, look there.

As for Stalin, I one had a Hoxhaite recommend the book Another View of Stalin to me, but I suspect, coming from the source, that it ignores his shorts comings and pays attention to only his accomplishments. It might be worth a look though, I don't know.

For both Stalin and Mao (she met both, and lived in both countries) Anna Louise Strong is wonderful. She gives a really realistic look at both sides of Stalin, and really honestly reports on all of the accomplishments and shortcomings in the Soviet Union and China. I love her. You can find a list of her works here. (http://www.answers.com/topic/anna-louise-strong) (scroll down on the page)

[CCCPneubauten]

Ah, thanks a lot guys, I'll put these books on my reading list.