Sztálin – a hatalom bűvöletében
Stalin – Enchanted by Power

Summary/Abstract: If the measure of success in politics is the acquisition and retention of power, leaving aside all moral considerations, Stalin undoubtedly was one of the most successful politicians of the last century. Neither his social background, education and intellectual preparation, nor even his early revolutionary activities predestined him to become the creator and leader of a superpower, one of the most ill-famed historical figures of the 20th century. By the end of the 1930s, not holding any official governmental position, Stalin managed to establish strict control over the party apparatus and state security organs and he built up unrestricted dictatorship that allowed him not only to defeat his rivals, but also to make his own allies and creatures obey him unconditionally. Stalin’s exercise of power was a unique combination of modern and archaic elements. Among his “teachers” we find, alongside Marx and Lenin, Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of the modern political manual of the exercise of power, and Gustave Le Bon, an expert in the psychology of the masses.

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