SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is a historian of Russia and the Middle East. Catherine the Great and Potemkin was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grande Prix de la biographie politique. Jerusalem: The Biography was a worldwide best seller. Montefiore’s books are published in more than forty languages. He is the author of the novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2014. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Montefiore graduated from Cambridge University, where he received his PhD. He lives in London.
“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)
Montefiore (The Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin) is more interested in life at the top than at the bottom, so he includes hundreds of pages on Stalin's purges of top Communists, while devoting much less space to the forced collectivization of Soviet peasants that led to millions of deaths. In lively prose, he intersperses his mammoth account of Stalin's often-deadly political decisions with the personal lives of the Soviet dictator and those around him. As a result, the reader learns about sexual peccadilloes of the top Communists: Stalin's secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, for one, "craved athletic women, haunting the locker rooms of Soviet swimmers and basketball players." Stalin's own escapades after the death of his wife are also noted. There's also much detail about the food at parties and other meetings of Stalin's henchmen. The effect is paradoxical: Stalin and his cronies are humanized at the same time as their cruel misdeeds are recounted. Montefiore offers little help in answering some of the unsettled questions surrounding Stalin: how involved was he in the 1934 murder of rising official Sergei Kirov, for example. He also seems to leave open the question of Stalin's paranoia: he argues that the Georgian-born ruler was a charming man who used his people skills to get whatever he wanted. Montefiore mainly skirts the paranoia issue, noting that only after WWII, when Stalin launched his anti-Semitic campaigns, did he "become a vicious and obsessional anti-Semite." There are many Stalin biographies out there, but this fascinating work distinguishes itself by its extensive use of fresh archival material and its focus on Stalin's ever-changing coterie. Maps and 24 pages of photos not seen by PW. Agent, Georgina Capel. (Apr.) Forecast: With a 75,000 first printing, this is likely to draw in Slavophiles and history buffs. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
"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 Carre, 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)
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