drf
26.03.05, 01:00
The Most Compelling Book I've Ever Read About Stalin, July 08 2004
"Stalin: The Court of The Red Tsar" is simply the most compelling book I've
ever read about Stalin, and I've read a few (from Martin Amis to Solzhenitsyn
to Robert Tucker to Volkogonov.) Montefiore has the skills of a novelist with
narrative drive, smooth prose, and psychological portraiture. He also has
ransacked a treasure-trove of freshly available documents like personal
correspondence, newly published memoirs, and in-depth interviews with family
members of the Soviet elite. The result is the most gripping picture yet of
this time and place in world history.
Interestingly enough, the Soviet leaders were like a small town where everyone
knew and lived in close proximitity with each other. Add to this the murderous
habits of the Bolsheviks and you get something which looks amazingly like "The
Sopranos": family men who were also monsters. (I guess David Chase just has
great instincts for this kind of material.) There's also a resemblance to "I,
Claudius" in the mixture of power, family banality, and horror. For example
secret police chief Beria was a loving husband, father and grandfather who
also personally tortured, raped, and killed his victims. (Human bones were
recently found in the basement of his old mansion, according to Montefiore.)
The author also has a sure grasp on the moral and intellectual issues raised
by Stalin's life. He says that the Communists were a fanatical sect and
compares them to the "Islamo-fascists" that we face today. He also gives an
amazingly rounded portrait of the human side of the dictator and the people
around him. We learn about Stalin's mistresses; that the secret policeman
Yezov's flighty, doomed wife slept with the great writer Isaac Babel; that
Stalin ordered the destruction of his wife Nadya's entire family (including
one woman who had an affair with him.) This is an absolutely essential book
which you must purchase immediately.
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At Last, a Stalin Study Free of Cold War Hyperbole!, July 02 2004
Montefiore's study of Stalin is truly the first, comprehensive, academic study
of Stalin WITHOUT the ubiquitious Cold War rhetoric and moral grandstanding of
so many previous English language biographies. Unlike Payne, Ulam, Tucker, and
Lacquer, for example, Montefiore provides readers with an exhaustive
examination of Stalin and his close associates for what they really were:
Human beings who loved, hated, gossiped, told bawdy jokes, back-stabbed, got
drunk, went on picnics, struggled with self doubt, cried, worried about their
careers, enjoyed singing folk songs, spent long hours at the office, played
with their children, endured personal health problems, and grieved for lost
family members. This book does NOT focus on geopolitics or diplomacy but
rather the million-and-one seemingly day-to-day activities that make up the
thing we call Existence. Based on many interviews and newly-opened Russian
archives, Montefiore presents a fascinating, lively, and well written study
for both the scholar and the general reader. Stalin and all of his lieutenants
