Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights:#1 The dictator’s approach to exercising power through a combination of bureaucratic institutions and patrimonial power inspired Yoram Gorlizki to coin the phrase neopatrimonial state. Stalin maintained daily, hands-on control over this central node of power.#2 The Kremlin movie theater was a 7. 5-by-17-meter space with twenty seats, installed in 1934 where Russia’s tsars had once enjoyed a winter garden. Stalin enjoyed watching movies with his comrades, and these viewing sessions became obligatory.#3 The dacha near Moscow was Stalin’s favorite. It was an important epicenter of his life and rule. The house was a strange blend of the institutional and the pretentious. Stalin personally oversaw the many expansions and renovations.#4 Stalin’s desire to shape the spaces around him led to the creation of a room that served as the dacha’s social nexus: a 155-square-meter hall. The food was simply placed on the table, and guests helped themselves to whatever they wanted and took their plates to any free seat.