Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

Not for beginners, but a very engrossing look into the inner workings of the Soviet ruling class during Stalin's lifetime. I bought this book after reading J Arch Getty's Road to Terror, which is more focused on institutions than personalities and, while also hard to put down, didn't talk much about the people involved. I think Mr. Sebag Montefiore did a great job of filling in what I was curious about and then some. It took me about two weeks to read.This book has been derided as gossipy but the author goes to lengths to contemplate how personal relationships affected more important things like the course of Soviet history. It is true that the focus is clearly on personalities rather than grand historical events (about which much more ink has been spilled in any case) and there are certainly trivial details like what people wore. However, I think the trivia add color without detracting from the scholarly value of the work. A lot of research went into this book and it shows (not least in the length of the footnotes). You learn a great deal about the constraints Stalin operated under--he was surely a dictator, but his actual level of dictatorial power varied (reaching its height during the purges, I think). And there were certainly times that he altered his behavior or decisions because of contradictory subordinates (especially generals) and/or the likely reaction of the Politburo.Other reviewers have commented on how Arendt's "banality of evil" applies to Stalin and his cronies, but I was also reminded of a line in the film Amelie wherein the protagonist's friend questions her love interest. She asks him to complete a series of proverbs and states that "a man who knows all his proverbs can't be all bad" the essence of this meaning, as I interpreted it, that someone who engages with their heritage comes away with a positive effect on him or herself. There is also Anne Frank's statement that there's good in all people. Court of the Red Tsar more or less takes this to its furthest extent: We see Stalin ordering the murder of Poskrebyshev's wife and his trusted bodyguard Pauker (both things I was curious about "why"--and Montefiore more or less answers them as best as they can be answered), the arrest or murder of many others (though he sort of leaves Lakoba's and Pavel Alliluyev's deaths unexplained--the former was surely murder, but the extent of Stalin's responsibility is unknown; the latter is ambiguous), and generally turning on his friends and family in a most lethal way. All this on top of his already well documented leadership of purges, etc--the author frequently identifies attempts to blame Beria, Yezhov etc (monsters in their own right) for things that ultimately roll up to Stalin.All the while, he is writing letters to help the most random people such as the tsarist cop who guarded him in exile (vouched for because he wasn't very hard on the younger Stalin), enjoying cultivating roses in his garden, humoring someone who writes to him asking to be his brother, reading a huge variety of literature from around the world, fretting that he wasted Lenin's "legacy" by not preparing for the German invasion (which is rich on multiple levels, but it is hard to fathom in context why he would say it in an insincere way), and perhaps most incongruously, caring for a houseguest who had passed out by putting a blanket over him. (In a similar vein, cronies like Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov, and even Beria are shown going out of their way to intercede on behalf of people and correct injustices of the Soviet system from time to time, despite their overall role in perpetuating the Stalinist regime).Indeed, it would be difficult for some Western readers to get through all the positive anecdotes (I kid you not, there are many in this book) and still be willing to call Stalin a monster. But Montefiore does it, and rightly so. If anything, the takeaway is that when it comes to morality, there comes a point when the good cannot cancel out all the bad: you can enjoy learning and culture and genuinely care about/for others and still be an evil person overall. When the blood of millions is on your hands, there's not much you can do to make up for it even if you try--and the impression is that Stalin didn't exactly try as much as he simply had occasional outbursts of common decency. Montefiore seems aware of this, and charts a very sensible course that is non-polemical without striving pointlessly for artificial objectivity.This book requires a reasonable level of familiarity with the subject matter to get the most out of it. For instance, the Cheka/OGPU/MGB/KGB are basically all the same organization, but the narrative uses each one according to what the agency was known as in the timeframe being discussed. There is one footnote explaining the term "Chekist" but otherwise you just have to know this from elsewhere. Still, if you're willing to stop reading to look things up it's entirely accessible to a general audience.

"Death solves all problems...no man, no problem." - StalinThis book has been reviewed thoroughly, so I will only add a few impressions. It was written by Simon Sebag-Montefiore (SSM) scion of a wealthy Sephardi clan whose grandparents fled Russia at the start of the 20th century and alighted in England. He has a different approach in his portrait of Stalin than I'm familiar with. Using recently released papers and letters, and aided by fellow historians Robert Conquest and Robert Service, he picks up from his earlier volume after 1932 with the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadya. With many quotes included it has a novelistic feel. At times I wondered how can it be known just what was said? Interviews, diaries and memoirs were extensively employed. The events reveal a true life tragedy.Five Year PlanAs a political drama it is fascinating. Who could resist a cast of characters including Stalin, Molotov, Beria, Zhukov and Khruschev all speaking aloud? SSM is no sympathizer but you hear of Stalin's tears, fears, personal foibles and public failures. To industrialize and militarize during the Five Year Plan of 1928-33 the Central Committee seized grain from peasants for export, starving millions. Commissars scoured villages looking for hidden food. As the gulags grew kulaks were killed. To qualify as a wealthy farmer one need only a cow or hired hand. The ulterior motive was to break their backs and revolutionize farming into collectives. The USSR catapulted into 2nd place behind US industry, the Politburo pitted against each other.The Great TerrorAfter wife Nadya's suicide, seen as a seminal event, there was a ruthless elimination of enemies of the state pondered for years. Stalin admired Hitler's Night of the Long Knives. The assassination of a Leningrad leader led to the Great Terror of 1936-39 beginning with the Moscow Show Trials where old school Bolsheviks were liquidated. By 1937 Stalin consolidated his grip on power as undisputed dictator. He established extra-judicial trials and secret police squads who murdered and sent millions to labor camps. At it's peak the Central Committee signed mass death warrants that only specified the required number of victims. The denunciations culminated in a purge of Stalin's close friends and family guided by his own hand.Pre-WWII1939 saw a pause in the torture and poison; there was no one left to arrest. Strategic mistakes had been made as top diplomats and generals were purged. Before the German invasion of 1941 Stalin chose alignment with Hitler despite ideological differences. Agreeing to divide Poland Germany built up forces on the border as Stalin refused to mobilize. He suspected a British plot as the Luftwaffe began to bomb Soviet cities. Political and military leaders feared to object. With Leningrad and Moscow under siege a million troops were executed for desertion or treason. Terror still had it's uses; the Motherland was not prepared for war. The old guard preferred cannons to rockets and horses to tanks, the Wehrmacht mired in mud.WWIINKVD chief Beria turned gulags to military production, while Molotov flew off to meet Churchill and FDR. Back in the USSR Churchill was insulted by insinuations the British were afraid to fight. On route to Stalingrad Khruschev lost a million men, thousands of tanks and aircraft. Stalin knew he needed to call in professionals, and General Zhukov was reinstated to his command. As the Red Army raped and pillaged their way to Berlin Stalin deported millions to Siberia and seized states for the USSR. There are accounts of conferences in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, as the Big Three met. When Churchill proposed to use the Pope as an ally Stalin asked "How many divisions does he have?" Truman dropped news of the Bomb.Post-WWIISeen as too popular after the war, Zhukov was demoted as military chief and posted to a remote region. Beria knew where bodies were hidden, and was replaced as security chief. Foreign minister Molotov, too soft on the west and ambitious for succession, was relieved of his office. Although Jewish comrades had long been in Soviet leadership Stalin now saw a vast American-Zionist conspiracy to subvert the USSR. A movement to establish a Jewish refuge in Crimea was prologue to a new wave of repression. Stalin purged writers and doctors in anticipation of mass deportations but luckily he died in 1953. Khruschev, fallen from favor over fighting and famine in the Ukraine, was able to advance himself after Stalin's death.An interesting aspect of this book is the pseudo-religious side of Bolshevism. It isn't discussed much, except in the ceremonial removal of Lenin's relics during the Nazi invasion and Stalin's transport of Lenin's death mask lit by a lamp wherever he went. There is a troubling resemblance of Stalin as heir to the Tsar, Kremlin ruler, intercedent of God and father of the people. It seems similar with Mao seen as a new emperor residing in the Forbidden City and son of a heavenly Marxist world. We can compare the propaganda and regalia of Hitler's Aryan ruse. Although attempted religion was not wiped out or replaced. The narratives were of a kind, personality cults celebrated with messianic fervor by the masses.I watched a recent comedy 'The Death of Stalin' which was hilarious. A mini-series of this book would be terrifying. It is not a general history of the Stalinist period. Major events are heard through the words of key actors. If you want to sit at a meeting or dinner table with Stalin this may be your best bet. It is better to experience these things vicariously than to live through them. It is light and fast reading. It is also a depressing look at human beings. SSM doesn't dwell on the pain but there was plenty. I'm convinced of what many have said before: Mao was Stalin's most diligent student. His personal style, political struggles and purges were all but identical. If the lessons haven't been learned there will be more to come.

There's nothing quite as exhilarating to me as gaining knowledge through reading such an incredibly well researched and documented book. Very satisfying!

For the last few years, I've been reading many books, both histories, and biographies, on the WW2 era. Partly due to the love of history that I've had ever since I started reading, and also because of family history (family members were in German concentration camps, and a great-grandfather was executed in the late 1930s in Stalin's Soviet Union.Which brings me to this work, "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar." The books that I've read recently that deal with Stalin, this one one especially, are eye-opening in that the reveal the talent that Stalin had in seducing people as diverse as FDR, U.S. and British diplomats, many of his own people, and his inner circle, who knew him best.His monstrous deeds are legion, yet he was loved by even those whom he had sentenced to gulags, and whose loved ones had been murdered under his orders. After reading this book, I realized that the horrendous crimes that he committed put him in a tie with Hitler.I'm not going to give anything away, but as you read this well-written biography of the Vozhd, I guarantee that you will learn (and be shocked by) what you find out in each chapter, that you hadn't been aware of.

Prof simon sebag montefiore is a brilliant writer, not just this book. If you search him and his lectures on YouTube, the man is extremely intelligent and has an excellent knowledge and his research and sources are top-notch. Anything written bei Prof Montefiore is worth reading

Well written. Important work. I read this years ago & wanted a hard copy for my collection.

O livro é uma ótima continuação da história que o autor iniciou em O Jovem Stálin

This book is a colossal achievement of an researcher who has the unique and quite remarkable ability to tell a complex story with astonishing ease and simplicity. It covers Russian history thickly between 1931-1952, while casting more light on the personalities, uncertainties, opportunistic policies, privileged livelihood, conspiracies etc. of Bolshevik Russia under stalin and his subordinates. However binding of this book is not good enough that's why it created some problems for me.

Exhaustive treatment of the running of the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule. Much new research is presented in a very readable form.