Stalin

The Court of the Red Tsar

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore

Narrated by: Jonathan Aris

Winner of the British Book Awards History Book of the Year

Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize

This thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar.

Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals in captivating detail the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with extraordinary narrative verve, this magnificent feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.©2003 Simon Sebag Montefiore

Critic reviews

One of the two outstanding books of the year ... the most civilised and elegant chronicle of brutality and ruthlessness I have ever read, its prose cool and clear but never indifferent

Horrific, revelatory and sobering ... triumph of research and should be required reading in Russia. Book of the Year (John Le Carre)

This grim masterpiece, shot through with lashes of black humour ... The personal details are riveting (Antonia Fraser)

Have you read Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar? It's scarier than a Stephen King novel!

Fascinating ... [Montefiore] concentrates, as any good historian should, on pushing forward the boundaries of our knowledge of the subject ... [He] provides rich detail of daily life and family relationships in a world of human values turned inside out ... scrupulously fair in the way he describes Stalin's qualities - including his ability to charm, his uncanny grasp of geopolitical issues, his brilliant handling of foreign statesmen and his genuine passion for literature (Antony Beevor)

Masterful and terrifying account of Stalin ... seldom has the picture been put in finer focus than by Sebag Montefiore. It is partly through his diligent interviews with the children of survivors and his admirable combination of history and gossip that one sees the awful banality, the brutal crudity of the men who carelessly sent so many millions to their senseless deaths

This magnificent portrait ... Montefiore has mined the rich veins of recent Russian writing on the Stalin age and of newly opened archives to give us an intimate history ... The stifling, contiguous life of the Soviet elite in and around the Kremlin is wonderfully conveyed, in some of the most striking and literary passages in the book ... A wonderfully rich and vibrant portrait of the Stalinist elite who lived in the shadow of a remarkable and dangerous colossus

Read it or face social Siberia ... a cross-over success. Academically and intellectually rigorous, it's also a riveting read ... it takes a great writer to make it seem fresh. And Sebag Montefiore certainly does that ... his greatest achievement has been to "humanise" Stalin. Uncle Joe was a mass murderer and a paranoid sociopath. But he was also charming, friendly and flirtatious (100 Best Things in the World Right Now)

Grimly brilliant (Andrew Marr)

Excellent ... This book is like a vast Russian novel full of characters, colour, terror, passion and treachery ... love affairs, marriages, divorces, imprisonments and killings (Susannah Tarbush)

Montefiore has managed to get inside the mind of the 20th century's worst mass murderer. What he has found there will affect your view of human nature ... a thoughtful book of first-class scholarship as well as a transfixing narrative ... vividly recreated by Montefiore's caustically witty prose (Andrew Roberts)

Magnificent

This book is a heroic achievement. The author does an incredible job at stitching together all the evidence and archive documents and paints a very vivid picture of Stalin and his close circles.

So Good!

I read this about 10 years ago and adored it. Was so pleased to see the unabridged audio version come out.

Both the author and the narrator bring the Stalin period to life. The approach to research and the narrative remind me of Doris Kearns Goodwin, but with all the zaniness of the Stalinist courtiers.

Remains a favourite and I know I will listen to this again down the road.

Riveting

Feels like an edge of your seat screenplay for an emmy award winning HBO series - and the narrator does an excellent job at conveying this. The visceral terror of life under Stalins rule is well captured.