Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Phoenix

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Vital prequel to the internationally best-selling biography STALIN: COURT OF THE RED TSAR

Great stuff, 2010-02-11
A marvellously readable account of Stalin's early years, the political and the personal. This is a perfect companion volume to his Court of the Red Tsar. My only complaint, as with the earlier book, is that the main footnotes and references are not included in the paperback edition, only in the hardback edition and online.

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Phoenix

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The epic bestselling biography of Catherine the Great and Prince Potemkin, her outrageous lover and co-ruler - by a bestselling historian

One of the greatest love stories of history, impeccably researched, beautifully written, 2010-08-31
What an exhilarating read! If it was a novel you wouldn't believe it, but it really happened in 18th century Russia! A splendid biography, as magnificent and exotic as its subjects, Potemkin, the prince of princes, most beautiful man in St.Petersperg, most extraordinary man in all Europe. Born a son of a poor Nobleman, he was not made by his friendship with Catherine the Great, but by her recognition of his talents, he became important because of his intelligence, originality, drive, and imagination, he brought himself to her attention with irresistible exuberance on the day she seized power, he was an impossible man, but a wonderful character! a control freak and an appalling hypochondriac who always made his point in a characteristically flamboyant manner, one can't help but become a fan.

He died at the young age of 52. Running a country at the time was immense pressure, not only was he co-emperor of Russia, he was also running the army, building a navy, founding cities all around the black sea, conducting umpteen love affairs, sending shopping expeditions to Paris and Milan, he was collecting art, he was building English gardens, this was a man who was living every minute of his life, an insomniac, so he did a lot of it at night!

Catherine the Great, a legendary figure, an incredibly talented and adept politician, second to none, she survived almost 20 years before she became empress herself, ruled triumphantly for thirty years, a very sensuous woman, married at the age of 14, a marriage arranged by her very ambitious mother, she had a very miserable life, in fact the marriage she had with Peter was so unhappy and so unsatisfying for such passionate inelegant woman. She needed a life partner, and after going through a series of lovers , finally there was Potemkin who (as the letters would prove) was the love and the best friend of her life, it was very romantic, for she knew him for 12 years before she took him as a lover, all that time he was passionately in love with her. They shocked Europe by taking younger lovers, yet they secretly married and ruled together as best friends and lifelong lovers.

Their secret letters, are the most romantic and unique letters ever written, simply because of the intelligence, politics,and power all mixed in with an incredible sexual passion and friendship. He carried her letters by his heart, and when he died he had them out and wept on them.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is an exceptional historian and writer. After reading his novel Sashenka, I couldn't wait to read all of his work, he tells it with joyful verve, The writing is fluent, with a dazzling mastery of detail. Montefiore's skill really shines in making a page-turner out of the most profound scholarship, that was massively researched in Russian archives as is all of his work, I highly recommend this book.

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Quercus Publishing Plc

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Monsters presents, in chronological order, grimly fascinating profiles of 101 notorious and profoundly sinister individuals whose actions have one thing in common: they have had a baleful and blood-soaked impact on the annals of history.

A BROWSING BOOK, 2010-02-19
Whenever a selection of types of people are chosen by the author, the selection itself is often the interesting part-why was he selected and not him etc. This book as a good cross section of monsters, though most of the subjects are political, or they have a connection with the status quo. I found the early part of the book challenging, as all the Roman Emperors seemed demonic, and they seemed to follow one after the other. The more contemporary characters were more recognisable as they had been in the news in living memory-mine!!This is very much a book to dip in and out of, reading it straight through I found not to my satisfaction, as my knowledge of early history was not strong enough to fully understand all the implications. In each of the biographies there is an inset on some aspect of their lives or a potted history of their methods e.g cruxificion, which I found quite useful, but it makes the reading of the book somewhat disjointed. Arecommende or suggestive reading list would have been helpful as well, but a well written and interesting book

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Phoenix

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The remarkable untold story of the men and women who sustained Stalin in power in the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years - a Sunday Times bestseller.

Turning Stalinist monsters into rounded human beings, 2010-09-04
A difficult but rewarding read, this book draws upon a stupendous amount of material, much of it then newly released from Russian archives, to produce what feels like the definitive account of Stalin and his top henchmen - his magnates, as Simon Sebag Montefiore calls them.

It is difficult because of the sheer density of Montefiore's research and the number of characters who make fleeting appearances, often to disappear for 200 pages or more. Even with a helpful four-page guide to the principal characters, you will find yourself regularly diving into the comprehensive index for a reminder of the complex histories of Stalin's family and his leading courtiers.

It is rewarding because of the wealth of detail. The book opens with the apparent suicide of Stalin's wife Nadya in 1932 and ends with the dictator's own death in March 1953. In the intervening two decades, 20 million people died because of unnecessary famines caused by enforced industrialisation, the extraordinarily vicious campaigns of terror pursued against "enemies", and the ferocious, and often chaotic, conduct of the war against Germany.

Montefiore gives fascinating accounts of many of the key turning points, both personal and political: Stalin's final dinner with Nadya; the assassination of his close friend Sergei Kirov; his virtual breakdown after Germany launched its devastating attacks in June 1941; his dealings with Churchill and Roosevelt; his problems with his children; his patient plotting to undermine his inner circle with the bizarre "doctors plot" in the months before his death.

He tells of Stalin's ferocious appetite for reading and self-education and, in his declining years, of the tedious, drunken dinners to which he subjected the surviving magnates: most importantly, Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Krushchev, Georgi Malenkov, Anastas Mikoyan and Vyacheslav Molotov.

There are comic episodes such as the competition to compose a new national anthem - "a dictatorial Eurovision Song Contest, with Molotov and [Klim] Voroshilov contributing to the lyrics, and Shostakovich and Prokofiev to the music".

Beria, Stalin's sadistic security chief, emerges as the most intriguing character. He was hugely intelligent and able, and most willing to challenge Stalin's authority, but condemned by history as the dictator's most chilling mass-murderer, and for his own venality. Yet Montefiore and his sources suggest that Beria was almost a closet capitalist, and would have pushed through substantial liberalisation if he had been allowed to succeed Stalin.

Mikoyan, always elegantly dressed, comes across as the most sophisticated, and often the most reluctant to indulge Stalin's murderous rages.

For all the horrors perpetrated by the Soviet state under Stalin, it is clear that these were extraordinary men, and none more extraordinary than Stalin. Montefiore has done a great service in bringing the dictator and his circle to life, turning monstrous ciphers into rounded - though deeply flawed - human beings.

By Quercus Publishing Plc

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Over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from throughout history.

Hit the right note, 2010-02-08
Bought for our budding MP nephew, who appears to have read every book worth reading, this went down a treat. Great out-takes and summaries from some very significant speeches and supported by the CD - good comination. Hit the right note now just waiting for our nephews's speeches to follow!

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Corgi Books

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Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her role in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a story of passion.

Sashenka, A Novel...But so much more!, 2010-09-03
When I purchased Sashenka, I knew that if nothing else, I would be getting a historically accurate read. I expected nothing less from Simon Montefiore, who has written two biographies of Stalin, including the award winning Young Stalin, and who has also delved into the relationship between Potemkin and Catherine the Great, in Catherine the Great and Potemkin - The Imperial Love Affair. My concern was whether Montefiore would be able to make the transition from biographies to fiction without over-burdening the story with minute historical details. I needn't have worried. Sashenka's tale sweeps you in from the first chapter, and doesn't let you go until long after you have turned the final page.

We first meet Sashenka in 1916 St. Petersburg -"Piter". Russia is poised on the brink ofrevolution and a sixteen year old Sashenka has made the decision to turn her back on the world she knows, and join the Bolshevik cause. It is through her young idealistic eyes that we see the final days of Tsarist Russia and a foreshadowing of what Russia is set to become. Sashenka will learn that people have very long memories and that choices we make when we are young can come back to haunt us. In the second part of the book, Russia 1939, Sashenka is now a married woman, living the communist dream. She has survived Stalin's reign of terror and come out unscathed, but many of her friends have not been so fortunate. But is the "Terror" truly over? In the final part of the book, Montefiore takes us to Russia after the fall of communism, again, through the eyes of a young woman. Katinka, a historian, who has taken an assignment to help a woman find her past. With her help, Sashenka's story can finally come to its conclusion.

Montefiore states that historians generally write about extraordinary people who've shaped world events and that in Sashenka, he wanted to write about how an ordinary family coped with the triumphs and tragedies of twentieth-century Russian history. Well, he succeeds, but there is nothing ordinary about this book. Montefiore manages to use his expert knowledge of Russian history, customs and traditions without bogging down the story. Each historical detail serves to make the experience more realistic for the reader.

Yet the most phenomenal thing about this book were the characters. In Montefiore's Sashenka, two-dimensional characters do not exist. He breaths life into each character, whether featured throughout the book, or simply mentioned on one page. I found myself loving and hating Sashenka at different times throughout the story, she became real to me, as real as any of the non-fictional characters who were featured in this novel.

In fact, the only negative thing I can say about Sashenka is that I wish I had more information about her "missing years" - I wanted to know everything! This book was truly a joy to read, both for the history buff and mystery lover in me, but it was more than that. Sashenka is about family, friendship, love, loyalty and the ties that bind them together. Montefiore has proven that a good writer is capable of transcending genres, when a story needs to be told.

~N

www.paperbackdolls.com

By Quercus Publishing Plc

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Over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations. Complete with biographies of each speaker, the history of why each speech was significant and what happened as a result, this is a fascinating history of the world told through the speeches that shaped it.

Hit the right note, 2010-02-08
Bought for our budding MP nephew, who appears to have read every book worth reading, this went down a treat. Great out-takes and summaries from some very significant speeches and supported by the CD - good comination. Hit the right note now just waiting for our nephews's speeches to follow!

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Weidenfeld & Nicolson

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The remarkable untold story of the Soviet tyrant and the men and women who sustained him in power in the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years

Turning Stalinist monsters into rounded human beings, 2010-09-04
A difficult but rewarding read, this book draws upon a stupendous amount of material, much of it then newly released from Russian archives, to produce what feels like the definitive account of Stalin and his top henchmen - his magnates, as Simon Sebag Montefiore calls them.

It is difficult because of the sheer density of Montefiore's research and the number of characters who make fleeting appearances, often to disappear for 200 pages or more. Even with a helpful four-page guide to the principal characters, you will find yourself regularly diving into the comprehensive index for a reminder of the complex histories of Stalin's family and his leading courtiers.

It is rewarding because of the wealth of detail. The book opens with the apparent suicide of Stalin's wife Nadya in 1932 and ends with the dictator's own death in March 1953. In the intervening two decades, 20 million people died because of unnecessary famines caused by enforced industrialisation, the extraordinarily vicious campaigns of terror pursued against "enemies", and the ferocious, and often chaotic, conduct of the war against Germany.

Montefiore gives fascinating accounts of many of the key turning points, both personal and political: Stalin's final dinner with Nadya; the assassination of his close friend Sergei Kirov; his virtual breakdown after Germany launched its devastating attacks in June 1941; his dealings with Churchill and Roosevelt; his problems with his children; his patient plotting to undermine his inner circle with the bizarre "doctors plot" in the months before his death.

He tells of Stalin's ferocious appetite for reading and self-education and, in his declining years, of the tedious, drunken dinners to which he subjected the surviving magnates: most importantly, Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Krushchev, Georgi Malenkov, Anastas Mikoyan and Vyacheslav Molotov.

There are comic episodes such as the competition to compose a new national anthem - "a dictatorial Eurovision Song Contest, with Molotov and [Klim] Voroshilov contributing to the lyrics, and Shostakovich and Prokofiev to the music".

Beria, Stalin's sadistic security chief, emerges as the most intriguing character. He was hugely intelligent and able, and most willing to challenge Stalin's authority, but condemned by history as the dictator's most chilling mass-murderer, and for his own venality. Yet Montefiore and his sources suggest that Beria was almost a closet capitalist, and would have pushed through substantial liberalisation if he had been allowed to succeed Stalin.

Mikoyan, always elegantly dressed, comes across as the most sophisticated, and often the most reluctant to indulge Stalin's murderous rages.

For all the horrors perpetrated by the Soviet state under Stalin, it is clear that these were extraordinary men, and none more extraordinary than Stalin. Montefiore has done a great service in bringing the dictator and his circle to life, turning monstrous ciphers into rounded - though deeply flawed - human beings.

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By Quercus Publishing Plc

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A unique and personal tribute to 101 men and women who in thought, word or deed have left an indelible mark on history.

Great Read that doesn't require a great deal of history knowledge!, 2007-11-12
I love this book because it is simple and easy to read and is full of inspirational people - some I'd heard of and any I hadn't. Its really informative and is written in such a manner that no prior knowledge was necessary. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and have managed to retain the inforation too. It looks great on my bookshelf and my visitors love to flick through too. Definately worth reading.

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
By W&N

The Red Star, 2010-06-25
Yet another superb book by Simon Sebag-Montefiore on Stalin, another being Stalin: At The Court of the Red Tsar. This book examines Stalin's background, youth and earlier career as a young red star of the Bolshevik tendency.

I was struck, despite having read a lot about Stalin and Sovietism over the years, by some of the facts shown here. My view of Stalin was altered to some degree (though not in essentials) by what is here. Stalin is shown as considerably more central to the Bolsheviks and to Lenin's ultimate success than has been usual in the "West". His role in providing money through "exes" (expropriations, meaning bank robberies, cash heists, kidnapping and extortion) is detailed. I found that very interesting: as the author surmises, it may well be this background and the fact that Stalin found his "fellow"-revolutionaries rather insipid which led him, in power, to treat the "politicals" in his GULAG system far worse than the "criminals" in the same camps and prisons.

I was also interested to see how Sebeg-Montefiore was able to change my view of Stalin as rather anti-intellectual. The book does show that, like Hitler, Stalin was a voracious reader and autodidact whose higher education --also like that of Hitler-- was cut short mainly by his own rebelliousness.

I had always thought of Stalin as being (despite his being a Georgian) rather uninterested most of the time in women. Not so...and his impregnation, at age 31 or so (I think) of a girl of 13 amused me.

Sebag-Montefiore does touch on Stalin's supposed anti-Semitism and notes that he referred to the Bolsheviks as the more "Russian" tendency or faction, with the Mensheviks as "Jewish". Not sure about that. True, the Mensheviks were almost entirely Jews, but then so were the Bolsheviks. Even Lenin (V.I. Ulyanov) was partly if not wholly Jewish on his maternal side and partly-Jewish on his father's side (as Sebag-Montefiore points out). It may be that Stalin's anti-Semitism was, so to speak, "defensive" and a result of a perceived need to protect himself and the state from what he saw as a network of Jews within what became, later, the CPSU.

There are facts in this book of which I was totally unaware, for example that Vishinsky, the later appalling procurator-general and persecutor-general, had been not only a law student (he is still regarded as the founding father of Soviet/Russian jurisprudence of the 20th Century-- main point, the importance of a confession, however obtained...) but alsop a robber of banks and even, as the author puts it, "a hitman". That was new to me.

I also liked the way that the author explains the very specific Georgian background to Stalin and to the events there in the late Tsarist period, particularly in regard to the Tiflis bank robbery which Stalin organized.

Small point: I do not agree with or understand another reviewer in his view that that "Okhrana" should be "Ohrana". My understanding is that the former is the correct transliteration and it is the form used in this book, also.

Stellar right the way through.