Hello all,
I recently started taking an interest in the history of the soviet union and as I believe is natural I have been more drawn to the parts of its history that include Stalin,I have done some research on books but all I have found so far is either heavily focused on one aspect of his goverment (his crimes or his economical policy or his ideology etc etc) but I have not been able to find a credible work that goes through every aspect of his work as general secretery (1924-1953).Any recommendation is greately appreciated.
Stephen Kotkin's Stalin biography does attempt to touch on all the various aspects of Stalin's rule: cultural, economic, domestic politics, and international affairs (although I should note that he is probably most interested in the latter.
It is a very detailed biography - it's a planned three volumes, with the first two published, running at 700 and 900 pages of text, plus a good hundred pages of footnotes each. Unfortunately this will only get you to June 22, 1941 - Kotkin is still working on the third and final volume.