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Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Paperback – Illustrated, September 13, 2005

4.5 out of 5 stars 2,644 ratings

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This widely acclaimed biography of a Soviet dictator and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of the Marxist leader and Russian tsar. • From thebestselling author of The Romanovs.

“The first intimate portrait of a man who had more lives on his conscience than Hitler.... Disturbing and perplexing.” —
The New York Times Book Review

Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with bracing narrative verve, this feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.

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From the Publisher

NYT Book Review describes a biography revealing a deeply controversial historical figure

The New York Review of Books praises a compelling, insightful book

Time magazine praises book as scholarly yet gossipy narrative

Editorial Reviews

Review

“An extraordinary book. . . . For anyone fascinated by the nature of evil—and by the effects of absolute power on human relationships—this book will provide new insights on every page.” —Anne Applebaum, Evening Standard (London)

“The first intimate portrait of a man who had more lives on his conscience than Hitler. . . . Disturbing and perplexing.” —
The New York Times Book Review

“Superb. . . . No Western writer has got as close. . . . A dark and excellent book.” —The New York Review of Books

“Terrific. . . . A deeply researched and wonderfully readable accomplishment—scholarship as a kind of savage gossip.” —Time

“Unprecedented in its intimacy and horrifying in its implications, not merely because it shows that the engineers of one of history’s greatest holocausts were depraved . . . but also because they emerge in these pages as surprisingly normal.” —The Washington Post Book World

“A marvelously well-researched book. . . . Montefiore has written a supremely important book about Joseph Stalin, a biography that other scholars will find hard to equal. This is sure to be one of the outstanding books of the year.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Ultra reader-friendly, lively, gossipy and packaged with revelations about the intimacies and intrigues of Stalin the man and his courtiers. Brilliant.” —Evening Standard Book Page

“A book that had to be written. . . . Montefiore’s biography is far different from anything in this genre. A superb piece of research and frighteningly lucid.” —The Washington Times

“Gripping and timely. . . . Montefiore has illuminated wider aspects of the history of the USSR. This is one of the few recent books on Stalinism that will be read in years to come.” —The Guardian (London)

“Montefiore combines his research among the primary sources and the fruits of his interviews into a focused, gripping story about a man, who, along with Mao, Hitler and Genghis Khan, has to be in the running for history’s greatest mass murderer.” —
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“[A] masterful and terrifying account of Stalin as seen within his close entourage. . . . Seldom has the picture been put in finer focus than by Montefiore.” —Alistair Horne, The Times (London)
“Horrific, revelatory and sobering. . . . A triumph of research.” —John le Carré,
The Observer

“I loved the totalitarian high baroque sleaze of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Stalin. . . . One of the 2004 Guardian Books of the Year.” —Simon Schama, The Guardian (London)

“A grim masterpiece shot through with lashes of black humor. . . . The personal details are riveting.” —Antonia Fraser,
Mail on Sunday

“A well-researched and insightful book. . . . The narrative adroitly catches the atmosphere of the time.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“I did not think I could learn anything new about Stalin, but I was wrong. A stunning performance.” —Henry Kissinger

“Montefiore’s deft combination of biography and history brings Stalin alive, so that he becomes as complex and contradictory as any of the great characters in fiction.” —
The New York Sun

“If you plan (wisely) to read only one book about Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, let it be Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Simon Sebag Montefiore, writing with the skill of a novelist . . . has based his highly readable biographical thriller solidly and factually not only on all of the preceding scholarly studies of the Soviet dictator but also upon newly available archival materials.” —The Seattle Times

“A large and ambitious overview—and under-view—of the Soviet leader’s life and epoch, drawn from an impressively wide array of Russian sources.” —The Atlantic Monthly

“Spectacular. . . . An impressive and compelling work, using important new documents.” —The Spectator

“Sebag Montefiore has done a valuable service in drawing our attention to a hitherto little-studied aspect of Stalinism. As his Stalin demonstrates, the personal relationships of those who ran the Kremlin provided an essential dynamic for the development of the Stalinist system. Isolated from the masses, these members of the privileged elite depended on one another for emotional sustenance to an extraordinary degree.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)

From the Back Cover

Fifty years after his death, Stalin remains a figure of powerful and dark fascination. The almost unfathomable scale of his crimes-as many as 20 million Soviets died in his purges and infamous Gulag-has given him the lasting distinction as a personification of evil in the twentieth century. But though the facts of Stalin's reign are well known, this remarkable biography reveals a Stalin we have never seen before as it illuminates the vast foundation-human, psychological and physical-that supported and encouraged him, the men and women who did his bidding, lived in fear of him and, more often than not, were betrayed by him.
In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research, brilliant synthesis and narrative elan, Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the life and lives of Stalin's court from the time of his acclamation as "leader" in 1929, five years after Lenin's death, until his own death in 1953 at the age of seventy-three. Through the lens of personality-Stalin's as well as those of his most notorious henchmen, Molotov, Beria and Yezhov among them-the author sheds new light on the oligarchy that attempted to create a new world by exterminating the old. He gives us the details of their quotidian and monstrous lives: Stalin's favorites in music, movies, literature (Hemmingway, "The Forsyte Saga and "The Last of the Mohicans were at the top of his list), food and history (he took Ivan the Terrible as his role model and swore by Lenin's dictum, "A revolution without firing squads is meaningless"). We see him among his courtiers, his informal but deadly game of power played out at dinners and parties at Black Sea villas and in the apartments of the Kremlin. We see the debauchery, paranoia andcravenness that ruled the lives of Stalin's inner court, and we see how the dictator played them one against the other in order to hone the awful efficiency of his killing machine.
With stunning attention to detail, Montefiore documents the crimes, small and large, of all the members of Stalin's court. And he traces the intricate and shifting web of their relationships as the relative warmth of Stalin's rule in the early 1930s gives way to the Great Terror of the late 1930s, the upheaval of World War II (there has never been as acute an account of Stalin's meeting at Yalta with Churchill and Roosevelt) and the horrific postwar years when he terrorized his closest associates as unrelentingly as he did the rest of his country.
"Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar gives an unprecedented understanding of Stalin's dictatorship, and, as well, a Stalin as human and complicated as he is brutal. It is a galvanizing portrait: razor-sharp, sensitive and unforgiving.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 13, 2005
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 848 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400076781
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400076789
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 1.67 x 7.96 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #53,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 2,644 ratings

About the author

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Simon Sebag Montefiore
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Simon Sebag Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of prize-winning history and novels. HIs books are now published in 48 languages.

His latest book is THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY - a history of humanity, unlike any previous world history: it uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story. It is genuinely global, spanning all eras and all continents, from the perspective of places as diverse as Haiti, Congo and Cambodia as well as Europe, China and America. From the stone age to the drone age, it features a cast of extraordinary span and diversity: as well as rulers and conquerors there are priests, prophets, charlatans, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, gangsters, rockstars, lovers, husbands, wives and children. All human drama is here - all the way to Putin and Zelensky. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World is both a celebration and an indictment that takes the human story, in a single narrative by a master storyteller.

He is the author of a Russian Quartet on Russian potentates: THE ROMANOVS: the story of the Russian Empire 1613-1918; CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN: Love, Power and the Russian Empire; YOUNG STALIN and STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR.

His wider history of the Middle East, JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, chronicles the Holy City and the region, covering from pre-history to 2020, from King David to today.

He has curated two anthologies of speeches and letters - VOICES OF HISTORY: SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and WRITTEN IN HISTORY: LETTERS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.

As a novelist, he is the author of the Moscow Trilogy: SASHENKA, ONE NIGHT IN WINTER and Red Sky at Noon.

Montefiore has written a series of childrens’ novels - ROYAL RABBITS OF LONDON - with Santa Montefiore.

Montefiore has won prizes for his works, both non-fiction and fiction. His novel, ONE NIGHT IN WINTER won the Best Political Novel of the Year Prize (UK) and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize. CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper, and Marsh Biography Prizes (UK). STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. YOUNG STALIN won the Costa Biography Award (UK), the LA Times Book Prize for Biography (USA), Le Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique (France) and the Kreisky Prize for Political Literature (Austria). JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY has now sold over a million cover internationally: it won the Wenjin Book of the Year Prize (awarded by the Library of China, People's Republic of China) and the Book of the Year Prize from the Jewish Book Council (USA). THE ROMANOVS won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Literature Prize (Italy), was chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey's Books of the Year (USA).

Many of his books are now being developed as TV drama series or movies.

Montefiore read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Visiting Professor at the University of Buckingham, Dr Montefiore has written and presented fiver BBC TV series including Jerusalem (2011); Rome (2012) and Istanbul/Constantinople - 'Byzantium: a tale of 3 cities' (2013); Spain - 'Blood & Gold' (2015) and Vienna (2016).

Follow the author on twitter: @simonmontefiore. On Instagram: @simonsebag_montefiore

For more information: www.simonsebagmontefiore.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,644 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find this biography reads like a novel and is deeply researched, providing a compelling narrative of Stalin's life. The writing style is wonderful, and customers appreciate the character study, with one noting how Stalin and his court become real people. The content receives mixed feedback, with some finding it detailed while others say it lacks depth. The pacing is also mixed, with some saying it's hard to put down while others find it somewhat disjointed.

76 customers mention "Readability"63 positive13 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as an excellent and brilliant read that reads almost like a novel.

"Great book. This writer is extraordinary. I am an ardent student of history; majored in it in undergrad...." Read more

"...all happened so recently, it's worth understanding and this is a good book to take you into the minds of the people that created this unfortunate..." Read more

"Excellent Book---very relevant in todays climate as we deal with the legacy of their decisions in setting up a state called Israel on Palestinian..." Read more

"Excellent. Extremely well-researched, extremely well-written. If you read ONLY ONE book on Joe Stalin, this should be IT...." Read more

67 customers mention "Research quality"62 positive5 negative

Customers praise the book's research quality, describing it as one of the best detailed accounts of Stalin's life.

"...Nonetheless, the book is an informative and compelling read, which is why I borrowed it from the public library and then ordered a copy for my own...." Read more

"...of his own family. I found this book to be objective and well researched...." Read more

"Deeply researched, it opened my eyes to the in fighting and deadly games those around Stalin had to play...." Read more

"...knowledge through reading such an incredibly well researched and documented book. Very satisfying!" Read more

31 customers mention "Writing style"25 positive6 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as wonderfully written, with one customer noting it is a superlative piece of historical writing.

"...This book is well written and gives us a true account of life under a dictatorship...." Read more

"...well presented, nice new archive information photos, mostly very well written-albeit maddingly repetitive on occasion)...." Read more

"...It is a superlative piece of historical writing and biography. Not with standing the repugnance of the subject, this book is great reading...." Read more

"...(and well-written too!)...." Read more

28 customers mention "Reading quality"23 positive5 negative

Customers find the book to be a compelling and entertaining read, with one customer noting that every chapter is suspenseful, while another describes it as an intense look into the inner workings of Stalin's court.

"...knowledge in hand, this book will fill in many details that are fascinating, garnered from the post-Soviet opening of surprisingly revealing..." Read more

"It's an interesting and well-researched biography of Joseph Stalin and the Bolshevik leaders with which he surrounded himself...." Read more

"...What was interesting to me by reading this book, was a fact how Stalin chose his victims...." Read more

"...you aren't a typical history book reader take note: THIS BOOK IS FUN TO READ. Two reasons;..." Read more

20 customers mention "Character study"14 positive6 negative

Customers appreciate how the book portrays Stalin and his court as real people, with one customer noting that Stalin was not a sociopath.

"The nature and character of STALIN is wonderfully reflected off his "COURT". I DID LEND MY OLD COPY AND DID NOT GET COPY RETURNED TO ME...." Read more

"...it's written from a very specific perspective that spends time drawing you into the characters, emotions, and social details in those moments in..." Read more

"A rare book. I couldn't wait for it to be over. A very bad guy." Read more

"...He has a different approach in his portrait of Stalin than I'm familiar with...." Read more

20 customers mention "Narrative style"16 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the narrative style of the book, finding it compelling and well-written, with one customer describing it as a detailed chronicle of depravity and another noting how it follows Stalin's life.

"This is a fantastic follow up of his book about Stalin's early years...." Read more

"...As a political drama it is fascinating...." Read more

"...I read this book as a detailed chronicle of depravity and butchery orchestrated by Stalin and experienced by the Soviet people...." Read more

"...The result is disjointed and jumpy, with no narrative arc to guide the reader...." Read more

18 customers mention "Content"12 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's content, with some finding it detailed and good, while others note it is somewhat dragging in details.

"The only thing, this detailed and very readable account of the damage caused by Stalin and his cronies was depressing at times - but go ahead and..." Read more

"...There are literally hundreds of footnotes and end notes. While the end notes are accessible with a highlighted number, the footnotes are not...." Read more

"...Montefiore seems aware of this, and charts a very sensible course that is non-polemical without striving pointlessly for artificial objectivity...." Read more

"...was given unparalleled access to Russian records and has a keen eye for detail. Indeed, it is remarkable that such records even exist...." Read more

13 customers mention "Pacing"5 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it hard to put down while others report issues with the pages being out of order and the book being poorly glued.

"...full of Russian names and places, that it is sometimes difficult to keep them all straight...." Read more

"Hard to put down" Read more

"...It was somewhat disjointed. For instance, there would be a statement that Stalin or one of his minions went off and killed 7000 people in one day...." Read more

"...The result is disjointed and jumpy, with no narrative arc to guide the reader...." Read more

Book poorly glued and fell apart after given as a gift
1 out of 5 stars
Book poorly glued and fell apart after given as a gift
This book was purchased as a gift in July and gifted to the recipient in August. As you can see from the photo it is improperly glued and the book is falling apart. I’m embarrassed and your 30 day return window is useless for a gift purchased in advance. I cant in good conscience throw money away on another copy but would accept a replacement that can be read.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    All the trendy and hip people that are out there right now, that think that Socialism is cool and fun, need to stop day-dreaming and get with the program. The program, which is this book. This is a great written book, it makes Hitler look like a school boy, compared to Stalin. You will truly learn what Communism, Marxism, Stalinism and Leninism stand for. This is a true definition of 'absolute power, corrupts absolutely'.

    It took me a week to finish this book. Averaging about 100 pages per day, I was done on day 7. It is a fascinating account of Stalin's dictatorship and what life was about during his regime. Let's not forget, that Stalin would not be there if it wasn't for Marx and Lenin, which shaped a way for this psychopath to achieve absolute control. The book pulls you through Stalin's circle, his buddies, his henchmen, his gangster sociopathic entourage totally drunk on power.

    You learn about atrocities committed by the Soviet government during Stalin's rule. People tortured and killed mercilessly, just for fun. Millions perished, simply because they were suspected or falsely accused by their peers, or because simply Stalin didn't like them. This book describes, Stalin's gang of torturers and executioners. Tortures such as, pulling of finger nails, electroshock or just plain beatings, were a daily occurrence.

    What was interesting to me by reading this book, was a fact how Stalin chose his victims. Here we have a peasant, with a dysfunctional past, full of hardship, getting involved with the Bolshevik movement, gets to know Lenin and soon after becomes a dictator of the biggest country in the world. This man would throw parties every night, get drunk, have fun till 6-7 in the morning, go to sleep and wake up around noon. In the mean time, anyone saying the wrong thing or looking at him the wrong way, would be put on a list. The list of thousands of names, replenished weekly to be sent either to Siberia or to their graves. The list had to achieve a certain quota, so some people had to be chosen randomly.

    This book will hit you like a ton of bricks, it is not an easy reading. When you're done, you will have a deeper perspective of Communism and life of Stalin and his friends. It's an important historical study, especially if you want to understand Hitler and what drove him to hate Socialism so much. Without knowing Stalin, you will never understand Hitler or a true history of WWII. This book is well written and gives us a true account of life under a dictatorship. Pick it up, read it and pass it to your comrades, socialism is not fun for everyone, only those at the top.

    I rate it 5 stars, although I wish there were more pictures of the characters involved at the end of every 2-3 chapters. Also, the quotations for the most part are irrelevant and totally distract you from the reading, wish there were less of them. Otherwise a great book about not so great man. Get it and learn something.
    23 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2004
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Other people have mentioned many very good reasons that this is a fabulous book (great research, well presented, nice new archive information photos, mostly very well written-albeit maddingly repetitive on occasion).

    Here's my pitch.

    If you're reading this review and you aren't a typical history book reader take note: THIS BOOK IS FUN TO READ. Two reasons;

    One is that it's written from a very specific perspective that spends time drawing you into the characters, emotions, and social details in those moments in time so that you can actually feel like a participant in that history rather than a detached viewer.

    Secondly - How can I say this. It's is unbelievably INSANE. Really, it's almost like science fiction what happened during the Stalin era. The reasons behind the thinking are explained, but the nonsensical approach, the idea that eventually almost all the prosecutors quickly ended up as persecuted, the rabid belief against all information that the system must be failing because of sabotuers... It's nuts. Before reading this book it was all very abstract to me.. This book provides a context - no excuses - and makes the governing of one of the largest chunks of earth for a prolong recent period seem both logical (from the Stalinst mentality) and lunacy from our perspective. This all happened so recently, it's worth understanding and this is a good book to take you into the minds of the people that created this unfortunate history.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2015
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Not for beginners, but a very engrossing look into the inner workings of the Soviet ruling class during Stalin's lifetime. I bought this book after reading J Arch Getty's Road to Terror, which is more focused on institutions than personalities and, while also hard to put down, didn't talk much about the people involved. I think Mr. Sebag Montefiore did a great job of filling in what I was curious about and then some. It took me about two weeks to read.

    This book has been derided as gossipy but the author goes to lengths to contemplate how personal relationships affected more important things like the course of Soviet history. It is true that the focus is clearly on personalities rather than grand historical events (about which much more ink has been spilled in any case) and there are certainly trivial details like what people wore. However, I think the trivia add color without detracting from the scholarly value of the work. A lot of research went into this book and it shows (not least in the length of the footnotes). You learn a great deal about the constraints Stalin operated under--he was surely a dictator, but his actual level of dictatorial power varied (reaching its height during the purges, I think). And there were certainly times that he altered his behavior or decisions because of contradictory subordinates (especially generals) and/or the likely reaction of the Politburo.

    Other reviewers have commented on how Arendt's "banality of evil" applies to Stalin and his cronies, but I was also reminded of a line in the film Amelie wherein the protagonist's friend questions her love interest. She asks him to complete a series of proverbs and states that "a man who knows all his proverbs can't be all bad" the essence of this meaning, as I interpreted it, that someone who engages with their heritage comes away with a positive effect on him or herself. There is also Anne Frank's statement that there's good in all people. Court of the Red Tsar more or less takes this to its furthest extent: We see Stalin ordering the murder of Poskrebyshev's wife and his trusted bodyguard Pauker (both things I was curious about "why"--and Montefiore more or less answers them as best as they can be answered), the arrest or murder of many others (though he sort of leaves Lakoba's and Pavel Alliluyev's deaths unexplained--the former was surely murder, but the extent of Stalin's responsibility is unknown; the latter is ambiguous), and generally turning on his friends and family in a most lethal way. All this on top of his already well documented leadership of purges, etc--the author frequently identifies attempts to blame Beria, Yezhov etc (monsters in their own right) for things that ultimately roll up to Stalin.

    All the while, he is writing letters to help the most random people such as the tsarist cop who guarded him in exile (vouched for because he wasn't very hard on the younger Stalin), enjoying cultivating roses in his garden, humoring someone who writes to him asking to be his brother, reading a huge variety of literature from around the world, fretting that he wasted Lenin's "legacy" by not preparing for the German invasion (which is rich on multiple levels, but it is hard to fathom in context why he would say it in an insincere way), and perhaps most incongruously, caring for a houseguest who had passed out by putting a blanket over him. (In a similar vein, cronies like Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov, and even Beria are shown going out of their way to intercede on behalf of people and correct injustices of the Soviet system from time to time, despite their overall role in perpetuating the Stalinist regime).

    Indeed, it would be difficult for some Western readers to get through all the positive anecdotes (I kid you not, there are many in this book) and still be willing to call Stalin a monster. But Montefiore does it, and rightly so. If anything, the takeaway is that when it comes to morality, there comes a point when the good cannot cancel out all the bad: you can enjoy learning and culture and genuinely care about/for others and still be an evil person overall. When the blood of millions is on your hands, there's not much you can do to make up for it even if you try--and the impression is that Stalin didn't exactly try as much as he simply had occasional outbursts of common decency. Montefiore seems aware of this, and charts a very sensible course that is non-polemical without striving pointlessly for artificial objectivity.

    This book requires a reasonable level of familiarity with the subject matter to get the most out of it. For instance, the Cheka/OGPU/MGB/KGB are basically all the same organization, but the narrative uses each one according to what the agency was known as in the timeframe being discussed. There is one footnote explaining the term "Chekist" but otherwise you just have to know this from elsewhere. Still, if you're willing to stop reading to look things up it's entirely accessible to a general audience.
    39 people found this helpful
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  • Splisbury
    5.0 out of 5 stars The superb measurer of doses
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2009
    This is a fascinating and at times magisterial portrait of Stalin, and his court he held sway over through more than two decades of Russias most turbulent recent history.
    Using a huge range of sources of both official and personal reminiscences, Sebag continues where he left off with Young Stalin. Sebag is intellectually honest enough not to attempt psychologically profiling this enigmatic and extraordinary human figure.
    What emerges is a man of iron-willed determination to ascend to power in a time of immense social upheaval.
    Stalin was hugely well read- an autodidact for life- with a library of 20,000 books This was the Dictator, Writer and Literary Critic. Humanising elements of his character are frequent throughout his life. Small acts of kindness and often spontaneous acts of generosity to his suffering citizens, coupled with a calculated determination to mercilessly exterminate his enemies. The destruction of Zinoviev and Kamenev is macabre high theatre. The build up to the Great Terror is facilitated by the calculating Political murder of Kirov, which acts as a trigger for a wide ranging annihilation of Political opponents.
    What emerges from the portrayal of the Kremlin, is an incestuous tight knit group of radicals, whose qualities were extraordinary and often seemingly incongruent. Loving family men, loyal friends, and yet as political animals and government officials, sadistic, perverted and utterly ruthless.
    The state stage emerges as an experience through which its leaders would emerge warped beyond all human recognition, slaughtering as they did millions of their own citizens.
    Danger was ever present at the court, which full of intrigue, Sebag chronicles pacily and with lucidity, such that survival for most of the principle characters was inordinately difficult. Indeed most of the original Politburo were purged.
    These were men who spent months virtually sleepless, drank ferociously, were afflicted with illness and ever likely to be sucked into the destructive maelstrom of the regimes gaping maw they had created.
    This book gives a fascinating behind the scenes look of many of these relationships, the characters and attributes of this sizeable body of men who bludgeoned and brutalised Russia into industrial modernity.
    Stalin emerges as an immensely complex and exceptional figure of genius in many of his attributes. His political machinating is considered carefully, with his excellent insights in human behaviour making him the undoubted supremo.
    Under this blanket term of dictator, tyrant or despot, Sebag has uncovered a living breathing suffering man. Cruel, ruthless and cold, yet also charming, talented and with elements of genius.
    This book deserves deserves its place on the shelf of anyone seeking insights into the minds and mentalities of these key Soviet figures. Sebag with a light touch allows the story to speak for itself, without prejudice or undue authorial interference.
  • Juan Cordoba
    5.0 out of 5 stars Apasionanre, documentadísimo, muy bien escrito. A tener.
    Reviewed in Spain on May 30, 2017
    Llegó perfecto, y es un libro que debería leer todo el mundo.
    Muy bien escrito, documentadísimo, ameno, con ritmo y tempos. Y realmente, pasé miedo leyéndolo, es increíble lo que puede llegar a hacer y conseguir un hombre.
    Lo conservo, y lo haré como regalo a mi alrededor.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb history book.
    Reviewed in the United Arab Emirates on November 17, 2024
    A superb book on Stalin.
  • M. Conlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Know the enemy
    Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2025
    Know history or be doomed to repeat it.
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
    Reviewed in Brazil on August 25, 2019
    O livro é uma ótima continuação da história que o autor iniciou em O Jovem Stálin