Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar [Audio Download]

I share many of the comments of previous reviewers. Yes, it is a daunting size, and shorn of maps, photographs and references the narrative is still nearly 600 pages. Yes, it is sometimes difficult to remember who is who among the various magnates. Yes, sometimes the writing style is a little strange. Having said that, it is really worth persevering with. By having made great efforts to obtain first hand evidence, either from the archives, or by interviewing those still alive, Montefiori gives a new perspective on the lives of those in Stalin's closest circle.

The book is not a history of the Soviet Union under Stalin, and the great issues faced by the nation during his reign are not dealt with in detail. That, however, is not the purpose of the book. Much has already been written of the Ukrainian famine, the destruction of the Kulaks, the Terror and Stalin as a war leader. The book concentrates on Stalin's court, a microcosm of the appalling brutality occurring on a wider scale in the nation. In this respect, at least it could be said that the soviet leaders shared the hardships of their subjects, living in constant fear of Stalin's mood swings, which could see them demoted, sent to the Gulag or executed. Nor did it stop with them. The families of the soviet magnates were equally liable to capricious destruction, and even children were imprisoned or killed.

They were able, however, to live in some splendour in the dachas and apartments of the former ruling class. This was true for Stalin, as it was for his underlings, and the book explodes the myth of his ascetic lifestyle.

The fascinating postscript for the book shows that even amongst those who suffered first hand from his cruelty, who were forced to divorce or be divorced from loving spouses, and be separated from children, and who saw on a daily basis the destruction of close friends and their families, there are still committed Stalinists. The importance of this book is that it leaves no doubt that Stalin was one of the great mass murderers of history. It should be standard reading in Russian schools to prevent a resurgence of admiration for a man every bit as evil as Hitler.

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 Kremlin, is an incestuous tight knit group of radicals, whose qualities were extraordinary and often seemingly incongruent. Loving family men, loyal friends, and yet as political animals and government officials, sadistic, perverted and utterly ruthless.
The state stage emerges as an experience through which its leaders would emerge warped beyond all human recognition, slaughtering as they did millions of their own citizens.
Danger was ever present at the court, which full of intrigue, Sebag chronicles pacily and with lucidity, such that survival for most of the principle characters was inordinately difficult. Indeed most of the original Politburo were purged.
These were men who spent months virtually sleepless, drank ferociously, were afflicted with illness and ever likely to be sucked into the destructive maelstrom of the regimes gaping maw they had created.
This book gives a fascinating behind the scenes look of many of these relationships, the characters and attributes of this sizeable body of men who bludgeoned and brutalised Russia into industrial modernity.
Stalin emerges as an immensely complex and exceptional figure of genius in many of his attributes. His political machinating is considered carefully, with his excellent insights in human behaviour making him the undoubted supremo.
Under this blanket term of dictator, tyrant or despot, Sebag has uncovered a living breathing suffering man. Cruel, ruthless and cold, yet also charming, talented and with elements of genius.
This book deserves deserves its place on the shelf of anyone seeking insights into the minds and mentalities of these key Soviet figures. Sebag with a light touch allows the story to speak for itself, without prejudice or undue authorial interference.

This book is both a confirmation and a revelation as it looks into the politics and intrigue at the court of the Red Tsar. Stalin is shown to be the paranoid, manipulative, tyrannical ideologue history has portrayed him as and additionally it is revealed how through cunning and political mastery this blood stained fanatic manages to get hold of and retain an ever increasing grip on power. We are also told the stories of the various toadies and their families who danced with the devil as they jousted for influence, prestige and survival. The courtiers in this bleak drama are nearly as evil and ruthless as their master or else simultaneously revering of and intimidated by him. The pulsating core spreading the poison is Stalin himself as he proceeds to kill all his enemies, real or imagined, and it has to be remembered that all the friends and acquaintances he sent to the torture chambers and death were merely the top of a pyramid of millions. Like Hitler, the man is driven by the logic of his delusions and he probably managed to kill more people. The fawning sycophants both encourage and act upon his malicious instructions as they denounce and threaten each other with levels of menace apportioned to their current state of favour with the tyrant. Such favouritism was usually short lived after which it was a battle for survival that was rarely won. As this jostling went on in the bear pit these cold-hearted bureaucrats were enacting the cruel, pitiless will of Stalin on the long suffering population of the Soviet Union.

There are many tales about the monstrous Yeshov and the chilling Beria, who was not a committed communist at all, and how unrestrained they could indulge in their sadism and depravities. Both came to bad ends. The story of Molotov is told and how his wife was exiled by Stalin and then re-united with her husband after the dictator's death. Molotov and his wife only survived because of Stalin's demise. Kruschev is another court crony who is far from unblemished. There are many insights into how these bureaucratic murderers were often kind and tender to their wives and children, yet so desperate when out of favour with the leader that they would betray their families, sometimes, in a supreme irony, in order to save them but always to try and save themselves. The book teems with anecdotes revealing the reactions of the courtiers when caught in Stalin's glare of hate.

The author does a commendable job at emphasising the dangers of tyrannical power and ideological fanaticism. He shows how the power and weakness of human nature in all its blood feasting lust and incredible displays of kindness and sympathy always prevails against ideology, both thwarting it and diminishing it. This beautifully written work is an excellent example of the many historical analyses that show how ideologues can only enforce their narrow, bigoted promises of some false nirvana through force and terror. It also shows how lunatics and evil come to power on the back of apologists, ideological sympathisers, cynical careerists and people who look the other way until the dark forces gain an unstoppable momentum that can usually only be ended by the death of the tyrants or war, often at the cost of the lives of millions of innocents.

The last chapter, simply a postscript, is surprising as it relates the attitudes of courtiers who survived and their descendants to the homicidal dictator. It is amazing to think that some of these sad victims can still make excuses for one of mankind's biggest killers. This has many parallels with the woolly, muddled and blind opinions we can still hear today in defence of vicious murdering tyrants. Stalin's useful fools indeed. The book is impeccably researched and the sources include living descendants of the players in the nightmare, Russian archives and other letters, documents and histories. The last 100 or so pages attribute these sources. It is very hard to fault this book but perhaps the editing is a little loose in places and some of the content could have been a bit tauter but apart from these extremely minor criticisms the book can be recommended wholeheartedly.