Humanising Stalin?

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• 1. Received ideas
• 2. Shock factor
• 3. Getting past the myth
• 4. What the archive reveals
• 5. The intimate world
• 6. To inform and warn
• 7. Responsibility matters
• 8. Find out more
• Print entire article

Received ideas

'... Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung were among the greatest monsters of human history.'

People will usually agree that Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung were among the greatest monsters of human history. All are considered such peerless villains that they have become brand names of demonology, cited glibly by politicians and serving as raw material for that most futile of parlour-games - the sweepstakes of demonology - who killed the most people?

But is this a productive way to examine historic figures of this magnitude? Or is it time to look again at some of the received ideas of the past 50 years?

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Published: 2005-05-22