SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
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The life of the young Stalin in every conceivable context
Stalin emerges from this book as unremarkable, but his discipline and aptitude as a practical worker commended him to Lenin, who was repaid with unflinching political loyalty, writes ANDREW MURRAY
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
Stalin – Passage to Revolution
by Ronald Grigor Suny,
Princeton Press £30.59
THE problem besetting any author writing about Stalin is set out plainly by Ronald Suny on page two of this enormous book. “The drama of his life, the achievements and tragedies, are so morally and emotionally charged that they challenge the usual practices of historical objectivity and scholarly neutrality.”
Stalin’s life, Suny writes, “is the story of the making of the Soviet Union and a particular vision of what he called socialism.” It is one of the most emotionally charged stories of the last century.
The Italian historian of communism Aldo Agosti called it “the greatest paradox of the 20th century, the phenomenon of communism, capable of mobilising the hopes and energies of millions of human beings in the struggle for their own emancipation, and at the same time sacrificing the dignity and the lives of just as many.”
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Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
