Stalin’s Library by Geoffrey Roberts – a resumé and review – Part 5
Posted by: John Phoenix
Stalin’s pometki (annotations)
Stalin was in the habit of writing in the margins of books he read, as well as underlining some sentences or paragraphs. Among his expressions of disapproval or disdain were expressions such as ‘haha’, ‘gibberish’, ‘nonsense’, ‘rubbish’, ‘fool’, ‘scumbag’, ‘scoundrel’, etc.
He could also be effusive in his praise, writing ‘yes, yes’, ‘agreed’, ‘good’, ‘spot on’, ‘that’s right’. At times his annotations were full of the choicest abuse, such as ‘swine’, ‘liar’, ‘fool’.
If he was sceptical about the text he simply marked it ‘m_da’ (meaning more or less ‘really?’).
As is the case with Lenin, his most frequent annotation was NB in Latin or its Russian equivalent.
Stalin’s pometki&n...
