Dictatorer Khoje? Etodur? by Anirban Gangopadhyay [Hardcover]

"In the familiar narrative, Stalin sent people indiscriminately to the gulags, controlled all the artists and writers of Soviet land with invisible strings, starved farmers under the guise of collective farming, and sentenced his critics to mass executions through orchestrated trials. In contrast, a lesser-known Stalin dismissed the advice to leave Moscow with his family for the safe haven of Kuibyshev in the face of enemy attacks, and instead, with deep foresight, pulled a war-torn country from near destruction, reaching incredible heights in science and technology. He equally valued language, literature, children's publishing, ballet, and film institutes, and nurtured the country's premier acting center with great care for an ardent anti-communist playwright. His son went to the front to become a war prisoner and died, his wife took public transport to work at a factory, and after his death, the 'dictator' left behind savings that would only cover a week's breakfast expenses for a government official.

It is natural for curious minds to wonder which Stalin is the real one. What is unusual is the author's decision to travel to Stalin's country four times at his own expense out of this curiosity. Instead of relying on books and the internet, he found it necessary to seek answers on the ground, repeatedly returning to the broken former Soviet country. This travelogue is the photo-illustrated result of that intense search."

The multifaceted portrayals of Stalin indeed spark curiosity and inquiry.