The autobiography of Joseph Stalin

by Richard Lourie

"Leon Trotsky is trying to kill me." With these words - a paranoid lie - we are drawn into the mind responsible for some of the twentieth century's most horrifying crimes. As the Autobiography of Joseph Stalin opens, Stalin is anxious and infuriated. Trotsky, in axile in Mexico City, is writing a biography of Stalin, and the book is a double threat. Not only does it promise character assassination but it may offer proof of a secret crime so heinous that its discovery might force Stalin from power. Stalin and Trotsky had long before reached a point where the guiding motive of each man's life was the others destruction. What will Trotsky disclose before Stalin's hand reaches him? Mesmerizing, terrifying, and at times comical - The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin is a journey into the very heart of evil. Stalin takes us deeper and deeper into his life and the labyrinth of his psyche until we finally are alone with him.