<p>In March 1917 young Joseph Stalin already a high-ranking Bolshevik returned from Siberian exile in search of greatness and power. But his activities during the months leading up to the October Revolution were full of blunders and misjudgments--failures that in later years Stalin obliterated from the historical record. <em>Stalin in October</em> reassembles the history of 1917 and explains why on the eve of the revolutionaries&#39; seizure of power Stalin seemingly dropped out of the picture. &quot;He would always be dogged&quot; Slusser writes &quot;by a nagging sense of having somehow missed the revolution.&quot; The lingering shame was crucial to Stalin&#39;s development into a Soviet dictator.</p>