Stalin was the lord of terror, a cynic of power who sent millions to their deaths. To this day, opinions about his legacy are divided. Helmut Altrichter, one of the leading German experts on the history of the Soviet Union, assesses the results of his decades-long research in this book and recounts the life of one of the greatest criminals in world history. Stalin was never a great "theorist" (like Lenin) or an inspiring "tribune of the people" (like Trotsky); he was more of a figure from the second or third tier. His rise began in the chaos of the Russian Revolution. Now, "practitioners" were needed who knew how to maintain power through violence and terror. As the organizer of the party, he managed to present himself as Lenin's closest associate and to assert himself against his rivals after Lenin's death. Everything happened in the name of "socialism.".