Stalin: A Study of the Life and Reign of the Soviet Leader

roger: A lot of the details are fascinating.

United Kingdom on Aug 11, 2023

PWH: Only part way through this read, but is really informative about the man and his context.Many revelations, for me, and quite a 'page turner'.
The style of the author makes this an exceptional work.
Highly recommended.

United Kingdom on Aug 02, 2023

Dmitry Jr: Despite what we know about how Stalin ruled, there still is little that we know about the man himself. The Soviet Union under Stalin was both open about itself and very secretive, just like the man who ruled that country. With The Court of the Red Tsar, we can now find a reasonable picture about Stalin, his family, and his coworkers. Far from the usual picture of a sociopathic mass murderer, Montefiore paints Stalin and his close associates as nothing more than men driven by their beliefs in Marxism-Leninism, socialism, and communism. Stalin was not a sociopath, his men were not mindless puppets, and their work was very stressful.
The Court of the Red Tsar is organized in chronological order, surrounding Stalin’s life. We see Stalin fully committed towards his work as a Bolshevik revolutionary, communist statesman, triumphant Soviet leader, populist decisionmaker, and aloof father. Montefiore does brilliantly point out that Stalin did have human emotion and connections with his friends and family: he truly loved his wife Nadya and was deeply heartbroken after her suicide. Stalin was also broken when his close political associates Sergei Kirov, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, and Andrei...

United States on Jun 21, 2023

Amazon Customer: This is an historical page-turner. If you want to get a feel for how Stalin behaved with his entourage, this is the book for you. Another reviewer was right when he mentioned that the book has a "movie feel" to it. This is probably the best book if you want to explore Stalin's psychology―not that the author is doing any psychological analysis, but since it focusses on describing scenes in the intimacy of Stalin's entourage, often with dialogues (which gives it its movie-like vibe), then this is the perfect framework to witness his psychology first hand and come to your own interpretation and analysis.

Some scenes were so well-described that it's hard to understand how the author could even know about this, although I'm aware that Montefiore did extensive interviewing with the family of many high-ranking Soviet officials. The book is not well-referenced, which exarcebates the suspicion, but I've read that more references are given online. I admit I haven't checked this yet, so keep that in mind. But regardless, those issues are not problematic enough that it should push you away from reading this highly entertaining book.

Montefiore's prose is very clear and...

Canada on Dec 30, 2021

dmiguer: "Death solves all problems...no man, no problem." - Stalin

This book has been reviewed thoroughly, so I will only add a few impressions. It was written by Simon Sebag-Montefiore (SSM) scion of a wealthy Sephardi clan whose grandparents fled Russia at the start of the 20th century and alighted in England. He has a different approach in his portrait of Stalin than I'm familiar with. Using recently released papers and letters, and aided by fellow historians Robert Conquest and Robert Service, he picks up from his earlier volume after 1932 with the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadya. With many quotes included it has a novelistic feel. At times I wondered how can it be known just what was said? Interviews, diaries and memoirs were extensively employed. The events reveal a true life tragedy.

Five Year Plan
As a political drama it is fascinating. Who could resist a cast of characters including Stalin, Molotov, Beria, Zhukov and Khruschev all speaking aloud? SSM is no sympathizer but you hear of Stalin's tears, fears, personal foibles and public failures. To industrialize and militarize during the Five Year Plan of 1928-33 the Central Committee seized grain from peasants for...

United States on Jan 31, 2021

Jamshid Nikkhah: I am at the moment reading this book which is an epic undertaking- I am not a historian but coming from a neighbouring country to the previous USSR and having some interest in this subject I bought this book for a relative for his postgraduate history studies and my own enlightenment. I miss reading at the beginning about the relationship of Stalin and Lenin and there is little about Trotsky. But the author does give a very intricate and exact account of Stalin and his actions. He writes fairly pointing out the man's positive and negative aspects and informs us of what we knew about absolute power. 'Absolute power, corrupts absolutely....'.In some ways the book reads like the account of several serial killers who slaughtered people in 1000s thus gaining a place in Guinness Book OF Records as the most prolific killers of human kind on planet earth. Marx and Engels would have been horrified.
Now after reading this book we know why socialism in that vast country with all its hopes failed. The criminal gang of Stalin, Yezhov, Mekhlis, Beria and other cruel leaders at the top destroyed any vestige of humanity, or socialism that could have flourished after the October Revolution. The...

United Kingdom on Feb 11, 2014

Splisbury: 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...

United Kingdom on Jul 26, 2009