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Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar | 
 enlarge | Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Rating:  88 reviews
Sales Rank: 37813
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 848
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5 x 1.7
ISBN: 1400076781
Dewey Decimal Number: 947
EAN: 9781400076789
ASIN: 1400076781
Publication Date: September 13, 2005
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Product Description
This widely acclaimed biography provides a vivid and riveting account of Stalin and his courtiers—killers, fanatics, women, and children—during the terrifying decades of his supreme power. In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research and narrative ?lan, Simon Sebag Montefiore gives us the everyday details of a monstrous life.
We see Stalin playing his deadly game of power and paranoia at debauched dinners at Black Sea villas and in the apartments of the Kremlin. We witness first-hand how the dictator and his magnates carried out the Great Terror and the war against the Nazis, and how their families lived in this secret world of fear, betrayal, murder, and sexual degeneracy. Montefiore gives an unprecedented understanding of Stalin’s dictatorship, and a Stalin as human and complicated as he is brutal.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 83 more reviews...
 Pure poison for the soul but wonderful for the brain - outstanding biography!!! December 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Since others already discuss its strengths and weaknesses, I'll simply give my impressions of this book: it draws a powerful portrait of a virtual psychopath who was not that truly loved by either one of his actually-immoral parents: an alcoholic, education-hating father who however had the same passion for violence as the mother; the mother being unscrupulous on top of adulterous, disdaining of her husband to the point of becoming an actual Carmen while seeking to do things to make her son not to be a younger version of his father - and encouraging Soso to be likewise unprincipled and ready to junk friends the way she junked lovers!
Little wonder (on top of how brutal, willful, passionate, very Mediterranean Gruzijans {Georgians} happen to be - just like Southern-Italians, above all Sicilians) that this man, capable of real generosity but without either genuine intellectual or emotional depth, ready to dispatch people perceived in the slightest to be enemies (even if without any real cause to so think logically) to the cruellest of fates (bullets in the backs of their heads and/or (beforehand obviously!) working themselves to literal deaths in the taiga, tundra or deserts of the boundless expanses of "Mother Russia". His ego was so boundless that literally ANYBODY who was praised (no matter how fairly - Kirov and Zhukov are both good examples) without being openly made to be subservient to "Uncle Joe" was automatically marked out for future evil (as happpened with Zhukov and beforehand Rikov, Bukharin, Zinoviev!); simultaneously, anybody who saw his weak sides (as happened when his last wife Nadjezhda shot herself) was likewise marked for woe. His good sides in such moments were just too dangerously vulnerable to be tolerated for others to see (his paranoia presupposed absolutely everybody to be pretty well automatically evil, it would seem)!!!
This modern-day Richard III (amongst other things - however, he certainly was no Napoleon or Augustus - his playing around with while persecuting great Soviet composers like Prokofjjev and Shostakovich, other artistic personalities like Jesjenin, Meyerhold, Eisenstein, and so many, many others attest to that!), himself not without talent both as a poet and as a singer (in the eyes of at least some - certainly his favouring the music of Chaykovskiy and Rakhmaninov {whom he wanted to return to Russia - fortunately that great composer knew better!!!} isn't merely a question of bourgeois taste!), is more than a little fascinating - and Montefiore does an outstanding job of revealing the full complexities of this Antichrist's character, feelings of foreigness (a Georgian in the midst of a Russo-Jewish society) and almost-perpetual paranoia which only got worse as he aged, somebody who insisted on his vision of not only Communism but of how people were supposed to be virtual robots to his whims. He could pretend to really care about others, but WOE to those who really trusted him with their troubles!!! Montefiore's research is exhaustive, his conclusions well-argued, his drawing of the characters of that ogre's subordinates (e.g., Molotov, Voroshilov, Bjerija) is masterful and not one false note seems to be present in my eyes! [I admit not to being much of an intellectual myself - and maybe it's for the better given Ljenin's brutal yet all-too-often just opinion of them as being not the "brains of the nation but the sh-t." Of course, that means that I can't argue all that well my reasons for liking this book where others may see weaknesses. However, what you read here is my honest opinion, regardless...]
[At the risk of my being considered anti-Semitic, much as that's not in the least how I really am or see things, it must be pointed out that Jews, having been particularly severely persecuted by the Carjs and the Russian people, were outstanding cannon-fodder for the Communist system and were deeply influential both in bringing about its formation and being a fair part of its backbone via such people as Kaganovich, Kamjenev, Trockiy and Zinoviev. Eventually, Staljin became outrightly anti-Semitic and was out to turn the "Doctors' Purge" of 1952 into an outright anti-Jewish pogrom that would be used to cover his elimination of old favourites he saw as being too powerful and so needing to be dispatched with (Bjerija, Molotov, Mikojan and possibly both Kaganovich and Maljenkov), as he had done in times past - however, these people knew his strategies and tactics so they knew what he had in mind and were therefore in an outstanding position to eliminate him - good riddance!!!!]
All in all, as one reads of his (and his subordinates') egomania, brutality, contempt for those underneath them (all too often to be used and jettisoned like Kleenex!), etc., one realises that this book is PURE POISON for one's soul (in some ways, Staljin was a model, more than enough other figures, for "Il Principe" by Machiavelli - who didn't write that book as a way he personally believed in the slightest!!) while being very edifying for one's intellectual capacity. One can understand something of why Staljin was driven to be what and who he was without however ending up condoning anything of the pure EVIL he did and was as a human being.
For anybody whose personality has already been formed and is safely ensured against becoming anything of Staljin's sort (that's something I NEVER want to see happen thanks to any reviews of mine!), I can recommend this book as basic reading on character study as well as Russo-Soviet history - absolutely belongs in any serious reader's library!!! At the same time, whoever reads this had better be able to quickly turn to more spiritual reading (the Bible, "Imitation of Christ", "Introduction to the Devout Life" are the books that come to my mind) so as to stop any risk of becoming anything like who Soso became - Generalissimo "Staljin, the Great Leader & Teacher, Guiding Light of Communism" (among so many, many other vain titles he chose for himself - yuk!!!!)... [In the wrong hands, this book can be downright dangerous, alas!!!]
Keep your Friends close but keep your Enemies closer! October 4, 2008
I first learned of this book by watching Book notes with Brian Lamb on C-Span. Mr. Montefiore is a British journalist with an historian's bent.
This extraordinary study of 785 pages details the personal life of Joseph Stalin. I must admit I was indeed taken back as to the rather cavalier attitude of Stalin in forcing his hand on all things of his immediate friends and associates in government. He indeed tried to control every aspect of their lives. As Michiko Kakutani described in her review in the New York Times, his cure-all was murder. Oh yes, Joseph Stalin ranks higher than Adolph Hitler in his elimination of the human race.
Joseph Stalin was the classic result of the Bolshevik culture. He trusted no one. Everyone was his enemy. Hitler was just as much of an adversary to Stalin as Beria who was a Bolshevik associate.
As stated by Montefiore, Joseph Stalin could act compassionate and display his ultimate Uncle Joe impersonation. However, in the end he was indeed a brutal and unforgiving person. He was a classic paranoid.
My old friend from the New York Times Michiko Kakutani rather likes this book. She indeed saw it as a limited study of Stalin with his immediate friends and subordinates during his time as leader of the Soviet Union. However back in her mind this study according to her should have included Stalin's entire oeuvre of philosophy of Communism.
Again she is indeed wrong, this is a study of the private Joseph Stalin. Doing it as Ms. Kakutani wants it done would take 3 volumes of 785 pages each.
Good work, long read but I liked it. 5 Stars, no problem!!!
 Jewish inolveement .... September 23, 2008
1 out of 17 found this review helpful
The main objective of Montefiore's books about Stalin is to whitewash Jewish involvement in the Bolshevick Revolution. They paint a picture which eliminates Jewish involvement in what was absolutely a Jewish controlled affair - both from abroad through Kuhn and Loeb et. al. and from within.
 Not for novices July 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Yowzahs! If you want a DETAILED biography of Stalin's political life then pick this up. I fully recommend it to grad and doctoral students or anyone else writing a book.
If you are a little curious and your last Russian history class was in high school, then you might want to look elsewhere.
I was overwhelmed. When I got out of bed, wanting to draw my own character profiles and story arcs, I decided that this would NOT be a good bed time read.
Thorough, scholarly and well-written this book made me feel stupid.
The History of a Monster July 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In the pantheon of the 20th century's most heinous individuals, Joseph Stalin would be prominently placed along with Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot. Stalin was a truly repulsive individual who brought death and misery to millions. To think that he should deserve some accolades for industrialising the Soviet Union is historical blindness of the greatest degree. He was simply a repugnant monster.
Simon Sebag Montefiore has told the tale of Stalin as a riveting piece of history. You may ask if there is anything new about Stalin to be told. Well, the short answer is that much has been learned in recent years. Montefiore was given unparalleled access to Russian records and has a keen eye for detail. Indeed, it is remarkable that such records even exist. Yet it seems that the Soviets were, if nothing else, diligent keeps of files. Montefiore has unearthed a veritable treasure trove.
Stalin was a man of immense paranoia. In his life, he trusted no one except, ironically, Adolph Hitler. Right up to the last moment, he was convinced that Hitler would keep his word and leave the Soviet Union in peace. When Hitler's word was broken, Stalin nearly collapsed. Yet, everyone else was a danger, real or perceived. The bloodletting that this unleashed in the 1930s has few parallels in history. But for all this carnage, Stalin was able to live a life cut short only by natural death. He created fear in his people and his immediate colleagues. He used this fear as a weapon. He was utterly remorseless.
Simon Sebag Montefiori's book is a master piece. It is a superlative piece of historical writing and biography. Not with standing the repugnance of the subject, this book is great reading. I thoroughly recommend it to all interested in understanding one of the great figures of the twentieth century.
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