In his treatment of internal and foreign policies, the Soviet period and the Russian historical past, the political elite and the ordinary man, Robert C. Tucker focuses upon the thought patterns and ideological factors that, together, constituted the Soviet political mind. His concern is with the problem of change in the Soviet system and in Soviet policy. Affirming the reality and significance of post-Stalin change, he analyzes and explains this phenomenon within the broad framework of Russia's political development before and after 1917.

In constructing this concept, he has evolved an interpretation of Stalinism as a special Soviet pattern whose dynamics were determined in part by the psychopathology of Stalin's personality. Thus, beyond its obvious contribution to the field of Soviet studies, this appraisal of the influence of personality factors on the political development of a country contributes significantly to the theory of dictatorship and authoritarianism.