Law and terror in Stalin's Russia

"The brooding figure of Joseph Stalin hovered over communist power in Russia for most of its 74 years. Despite its achievements, his regime practised lawlessness and terror over a wider span of territory and more people than had ever been known before. The question that arises is, how was he able to exercise dictatorial rule over 170 million people in the many countries making up the Soviet Union for so long?" "Stalin's Russia still has the power to evoke intense interest and the new information gradually being excavated from Soviet archives is forever bringing forth more appalling revelations of the depths to which men can sink." "No longer is it widely believed that Stalin deviated from Lenin's model but, as John Hostettler shows, terror was inherent in the whole of Lenin's revolutionary career. In vivid detail the author plots the interaction of Marxist theory with the culturally backward legacy of autocratic Tsarist Russia that was played out in the minds of Lenin, Stalin and the other Bolshevik leaders." "What is also established is that not only was law often ignored but was also twisted and used as a facade to enhance and legitimize appalling inhumanity. We see the growth of