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A lucid style, masterful command of all the essential sources available, detachment, and objectivity, as well as a complex and intriguing approach befitting his subject, recommend Tucker's study, the first volume of a projected trilogy, and make it stand out among the numerous biographies
of the man who for nearly three decades subjected close to one third of the world to his iron rule and personal whim.
As the title suggests, this is not an ordinary biography. While Stalin clearly occupies center stage, the author has skillfully defined the parameters of his study to include a probing inquiry into the larger problem of the interaction between the personality of this remarkable political leader and the course of history. Drawing on the pioneering work of Karen Horney and Erik Erikson, he seeks to shed light on the psychosocial identity of Stalin in an attempt to penetrate the interface of personality, human motivation, and the historical process.
The application of psychological theories, concepts, and techniques to the study of the lives of dictators, including that of Stalin, is not new. The merit of Tucker's work here lies in his cautious and judicious use of the psychoanalytic method, in his awareness of the limitations imposed by the Eriksonian framework of analysis—especially in view of the lack of more elaborate data on Stalin's childhood and adolescence. Realizing that the available information does not permit a full-blown explication of Stalin's personality in terms of Erikson's psychic growth model, Tucker avoids the common pitfall of claiming too much. Instead, his analysis of Stalin's personality throughout is circumspect, closely reasoned, intricate, and—even if open to question on some points—always plausible and thought-provoking. Of necessity, and by conscious design of the author, the psychological portrait of Stalin that emerges is skeletal.
According to Tucker, Stalin was a much more complex personality than has generally been acknowledged. Having