The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore is a great place to start if you want to learn more about Stalin, his book ‘The Court of the Red Tsar’ is a really interesting insight into how he ran his inner circle from the dachas outside of Moscow, many of these in the Crimea. He also has a biography about Stalin’s early years - ‘Young Stalin’.

If you want to learn about what life was like under Stalinism in the 1930s then I would recommend ‘Everyday Stalinism’ - Sheila Fitzpatrick, which provides a great social history of Soviet Russia, taking you through each aspect of life and explaining who gained and lost the most from Stalin’s rule. Also interesting is ‘Magnetic Mountain’ which tells the story of Magnitogorsk, the best example of a new industrial centre, one of many that sprung up during the Five Year Plans.