Review: I think its a good idea, but this book missed the mark :(
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 29, 2013
I purchased this kindle version to study Stalin because I was working on American history in the 1950's.  My research involved the cold war connection to the USA and USSR.  Stalin was part of the political set up for this time, so I wanted to know a little more about him without becoming sidetracked into another historical personage.  This book seemed like an answer to that need, however, I was really disappointed.  It is horribly written.  It contains so many editorial errors that it is almost impossible to understand in some places.  I also feel that while condensation is a good thing, this book is confusing with it's assumptions that you know enough Russian references to follow the narrative.  The book bounces all over the place in reference to places and chronology.  From my reading it feels like they tried to condense things a little too much and lost the meaning along the way.  Since that was my purpose in aquiring this book, it failed miserably.  I gave it 2 stars because I did get some information out of the text for my purposes so I was not forced to study another volume.  Small praise, I guess, but it was the most charitable I could be.