In The Last Days of Stalin Joshua Rubenstein presents three intertwined stories—the Soviet dictator's incitement of renewed persecutions in the months before his death, the early reform efforts of his successors, and debates within the U.S. government about how to respond to the “softening” of the Soviet regime. Along the way, Rubenstein handles topics of great significance for the history of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Among these are Iosif Stalin's (supposed) anti-Semitism, his motivations for prosecuting the so-called Doctor's Plot, the readiness of the post-Stalin Soviet leaders to ratchet down tensions with the West, and the resistance of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and his advisers to doing so. Rubenstein's book is a good read, concise and absorbing, and it follows the latest scholarship on the months around Stalin's death.
The Last Days of Stalin opens with the first Soviet press announcement of Stalin's fatal illness, on 4...