Exit Stalin by Mark B Smith

Exit Stalin by Mark B Smith

'Superb... Immensely important... This is a tragic story, and Smith tells it magnificently' The Telegraph

One of the most anticipated books of 2026 according to Financial Times and New Statesman

An extraordinarily atmospheric and powerful history of the world's largest state and its decline and fall

With Stalin's death, the Soviet Union remained a repressive, harsh and belligerent place, but one which became more predictable for its citizens and one which made a genuine attempt to create the egalitarian, progressive country that the Russian Revolution had once promised. That this attempt would fail was not clear until the 1980s.

Mark B. Smith's remarkable book recreates the day-to-day life of this vast state, the largest ever to exist. What was life like in a country which made such absolute claims for the future, which claimed to be on its way to creating a people's utopia and which, like the USA, owned enough atomic weapons to end human life on Earth?

Exit Stalin is filled with extraordinary stories about those who lived in the USSR and the distinctive and functioning civilization that they built. Many of them embraced its values, understood its goals and could not imagine life outside such a vastly ambitious and progressive project. The shortages, coercion and incompetence that underlay the USSR - and which by the late 1980s would doom it - has to be understood alongside the acceptance it always had from many of its citizens. And this in turn is a crucial issue for understanding Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union in the 21st century.

Mark B. Smith teaches in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Property of Communists and The Russia Anxiety.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780241400852
ISBN 10	0241400856
Title	Exit Stalin
Author	Smith Mark B
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Allen Lane
Year published	2026-01-29
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.