Stalin through seventeenth-century eyes

Abstract

The article examines twentieth-century representations of Stalin. It suggests that none is entirely satisfactory and proposes that a fruitful approach to the problem of representation is to compare representations of Stalin with representations of other historical figures. Comparison with Hitler, a commonplace of modern history writing, is avoided because both are twentieth-century figures and both, therefore, have only a limited range of representations. Instead, a comparison with texts on Cromwell is essayed. Parallels are drawn with texts on Stalin and a classification for types of representation proposed. The article concludes that there is no development or progress in biographical writing over time, and that comparing representations of Stalin and Cromwell alerts us to the possibility that different views of Stalin are more likely to emerge if researches look first at the forms biography has taken.