Stalin: A New History

Fascinating take on Stalin. Covering the period from when he assumed absolute power after Lenin's death to his own passing, the book focuses on his "court" - the daily life of Stalin and his inner circle - the personal interactions with family and colleagues as all the well known events unfold in the background. This book could only have been written when it was as Montefiore was able to take advantage of both the unprecedented access to Soviet records in the early post-USSR days and first hand accounts of many individuals who had been members of the "court" as children or young adults. Montefiore's Stalin comes across as very human - ruthless, cruel, etc, but also a man devastated by his wife's suicide who struggled to be a good father, and at the same time a dedicated Bolshevik conscious his outsized place in history.

One of the best detailed accounts of Stalin and his circle. The author poignantly writes about the fear and terror even amongst his closest comrades. He also captures how both revered and feared he was by his people. So many naive Americans merely portray Hitler and Stalin simplistically both as these crazy monsters who terrorized their people. They did terrorize their people but both were worshipped by many millions. And contrary to what many say, he was no insane megalomaniac. Rather he was an astute politician and yes statesman who built a society with him as its unquestionable dictator.

This book does a marvelous account at portraying those around him including his family.

I have read this book twice, and thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

No book has given such a lucid, descriptive, and fascinating account of the man, his closest so circle and the country at the time. I also like the fact that unlike many other biographies it does not preach or lecture on the negatives of socialism ad nauseum. It merely tells the facts

Just an outstanding book, meticulously researched but it reads almost like a novel. This book has inspired me to learn more about Stalin and the Russian Revolution, the chapters on The Great Terror are equal parts terrifying and fascinating. I highly highly recommend you reading this wonderful book, it is that good that literally the second I finished the last page, I flicked right back to the first page and started reading again, completing the book a second time before moving to a new Stalin book, this book by Simon has made Stalin my obsession, for now anyway. I challenge anyone to read this book and not come away fascinated with this period in history

Interesting but somewhat dragging in details. Also a bit repetitive on some subjects. Very good showing what Stalin the man and Stalin the Dictator were like. Shocking to be reminded of what he and his henchman got away with in loss of innocent lives. Worth reading to get a good refresher.

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.

Do great men make great times or do great times make great men? I found this book to be just fascinating. From other histories I was familiar with some of this cast of characters, mostly by name and historical events. This is a character study of the individuals in the Bolshevik constellation that orbited around Stalin. It can not help but include Stalin himself but the focus is on all the others that helped make the era what it was. It's not so much about events as the personalities and personal conflicts, real and imagined (by the characters and especially by Stalin), taking place in the power rooms of the USSR during Stalin's era. It is highly readable (except perhaps Russian names) which is so nice in a history book. I would call this a most read for anybody interested in this period of history.

Great book. This writer is extraordinary. I am an ardent student of history; majored in it in undergrad. I am very pleased to post this review with the highest accolades for this writer and subject matter. I look forward to reading his master work about the ascendancy of the Romanov's in Russia.