The Book Prize Index

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928

Stephen Kotkin

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 is the first volume in the three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin by American historian and Princeton Professor of History Stephen Kotkin. It was originally published in November 2014 by Penguin Random House and as an audiobook in December 2014 by Recorded Books. The second volume, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941, was published in 2017 by Penguin Random House.

BiographyBiography · medium confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryAward Category: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography -> BiographyPresidential BiographyPresidency & Executive PowerLabor, Work & Organizing

Award History

0 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Pulitzer Prize in Biography or AutobiographyMajor2015FinalistSecondary source
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for BiographyMajor2014FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Joseph Stalin86%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    67 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 67%.