Young Stalin: Amazon.co.uk: Simon Sebag Montefiore: Books

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

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4.1 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Biography of a Surprising Sympathetic Character..., 24 Sep 2008

By	Mr. N. T. Baxter "Neil" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Young Stalin (Paperback)

I was really surprised by my reaction to this book. Like pretty much any sane person I consider Stalin to be one of the great tyrants of history. A brutal murderer; paranoid, violent and cruel. However, reading the story of his early years I often found myself rooting for him in his struggles with the Tsarist police, brutal teachers and violent father.

He comes across, at least to start with, as a romantic character. He was an excellent writer and poet, and was loyal to his friends and his women. He saw injustice and fought against it with all his strength. But over time his brutal upbringing and his resulting lack of trust in others began to take over. In the end the sympathetic traits are consumed by paranoia and hatred, and this book is a wonderful description of how this transformation happened.

A really exciting story and a brilliant case study in the formative events of a unique criminal psychopathology.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, 25 Aug 2008

By	R. A. Hooker "rah44uk" (London) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Young Stalin (Paperback)

This is a great biography. It's fast moving, full of action and Montefiore really brings the young Stalin to life as you flick from page to spell-binding page.

You find yourself at turns liking the passion and charisma of the protagonist, and then repelled by his nascent cruelty and emotional coldness.

This book really explodes the myth that Stalin was simply a "grey blur" before he began to seize power in the 1920's. He was a competent, intelligent and experienced revolutionary, who was important to Lenin and popular with the party grass roots. His drive and personal magnetism are awe-inspiring, and Sebag Montefiore's book is an exercise in demonstrating how true greatness is born.

I can't wait to read the author's book on Stalin's later life, "The Court of the Red Tsar".

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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best biography for years, 7 May 2008

By	Big Jim "Big Jim" (London, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Young Stalin (Paperback)

Having just finished Tim Jeal's excellent biography of Stanley I stated that that was the best biography I had read for years. I immediately started on this one and three days later am pleased to announce that THIS is the best biography I have read for years. I could resort to cliches (OK I will resort to cliches)this is a virtually unputdownable, page turner. A boys own adventure - well perhaps a bit brutal to be boys own, but in all seriousness, if someone came to a publisher with this as a work of fiction they'd be laughed out of court at the sheer improbability of it. But having said that, the rip-snorting action packed nature of this work allows the prose to flow in a fictional "style" as it were, making this a slightly better "read" than the same author's "The court of the Red Tsar" about Stalin's years in power

I'm not going to repeat a lot of facts and snippets from the book that have become apparent since the opening of the Russian archives, all I'm going to do is urge you to read this book. You will definitely not regret it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great detail, nice work
I bought this book knowing little about Stalin other than he was the leader of Communist Russia etc. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Road Trip Charlie

5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid account of Stalin and pre-Revolutionary Georgia
Although it justly won the 2007 Costa Biography Award, this book is also a valuable work of history, providing lay reader and history student alike with valuable insights not just... Read more

Published 2 months ago by J. A. Peacock

4.0 out of 5 stars Startling Insights from Our Own Doorstep
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Montefiore's second book on Stalin sets out to answer a question you can readily imagine asking of someone responsible for the... Read more

Published 2 months ago by A. R. Drenth

2.0 out of 5 stars Not bad
It was Marx who said that men make their own destinies but not in circumstances of their own choosing. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Gary 78

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinatingly readable and a history lesson too!!
Extraordinary story of an idealistic seminary chorister who became a monster meglomaniac paranoid narcissist, thriving at 'his' best in war torn disruption and cultural... Read more

Published 2 months ago by D. O'Halloran

2.0 out of 5 stars young stalin-paperback

my copy had pages 59-106 missing and pages 107-154 in duplicate so i am not best pleased. my complaint in january did not reach you.
g.h. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Geoffrey Morgan

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall, but dragged in places
I enjoyed reading this book, and actually finished it, which I often do not manage with books of this length. Read more

Published 8 months ago by S. Gerhand

5.0 out of 5 stars A Warning From History
This is a well-researched, well-written, very depressing, and very important book. Those who were reluctant to admit the enormity of Stalin's crimes tried to comfort themselves,... Read more

Published 9 months ago by John Winterson Richards

1.0 out of 5 stars Stalin planned 9/11
It is now twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the triumphal proclamation of the victory of capitalism and the 'end of history'. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Red not Dead

5.0 out of 5 stars How could this man have become the hard hearted monster of the Soviet Republic?
A topic I would never have thought could be so very interesting. The early years of the black hearted Red Tsar and what made him become so dogmatic and ultimately wicked. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Sally Wilton

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	89% buy the item featured on this page: Young Stalin 4.1 out of 5 stars (13)
	4% buy Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar 3.7 out of 5 stars (47) �6.02
	3% buy Sashenka 4.5 out of 5 stars (28) �3.86
	2% buy Young Stalin 5.0 out of 5 stars (7) �9.99


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