Stalin: De jeugdjaren: Van rebel tot rode tsaar

Joseph Stalin #1

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Simon Sebag Montefiores klassieker over de jonge Jozef Stalin

'Spannende en voortreffelijke biografie. Magistraal.' NRC

In het veelgeprezen De jeugdjaren gaat historicus Simon Sebag Montefiore op zoek naar de oorsprong van de Sovjet-Russische dictator en diens schrikbewind in de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw.

Op basis van jarenlang archiefonderzoek vertelt Montefiore het bloedstollende verhaal van de zoon van een charismatische schoenmaker die uitgroeide tot een leerling-priester, romantische dichter, beruchte minnaar, sluwe strateeg en moorddadige revolutionair. Montefiores standaardwerk over de jonge Jozef Stalin geeft de lezer een radicaal nieuwe kijk op de begaafde politicus en fanatieke marxist die de Sovjet-Unie naar zijn hand zou zetten. Dit is het verhaal van hoe Stalin Stalin werd.

'Aangrijpend! Montefiores onderzoek is briljant. Het boek biedt een schat aan serieuze en ijzingwekkende details en creëert een gedenkwaardig portret van een van de grootste monsters van de 20e eeuw.' Antony Beevor, auteur van Stalingrad

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Russia, Politics, Russian History, Biography Memoir

801 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Simon Sebag Montefiore is the author of the global bestsellers 'The Romanovs' and 'Jerusalem: the Biography,' 'Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar' and Young Stalin and the novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter and "Red Sky at Noon." His books are published in 48 languages and are worldwide bestsellers. He has won prizes in both non-fiction and fiction. He read history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, where he received his Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD).
'The Romanovs' is his latest history book. He has now completed his Moscow Trilogy of novels featuring Benya Golden and Comrade Satinov, Sashenka, Dashka and Fabiana.... and Stalin himself.


Buy in the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Winter-...

"A thrilling work of fiction. Montefiore weaves a tight, satisfying plot, delivering surprises to the last page. Stalin's chilling charisma is brilliantly realised. The novel's theme is Love: family love, youthful romance, adulterous passion. One Night in Winter is full of redemptive love and inner freedom." Evening Standard

"Gripping and cleverly plotted. Doomed love at the heart of a violent society is the heart of Montefiore's One Night in Winter... depicting the Kafkaesque labyrinth into which the victims stumble." The Sunday Times

"Compulsively involving. Our fear for the children keeps up turning the pages... We follow the passions with sympathy... The knot of events tugs at a wide range of emotions rarely experienced outside an intimate tyranny." The Times

"The novel is hugely romantic. His ease with the setting and historical characters is masterly. The book maintains a tense pace. Uniquely terrifying. Heartrending. Engrossing. " The Scotsman

“Delicately plotted and buried within a layered, elliptical narrative, One Night in Winter is also a fidgety page-turner which adroitly weaves a huge cast of characters into an arcane world.” Time Out

“A novel full of passion, conspiracy, hope, despair, suffering and redemption, it transcends boundaries of genre, being at once thriller and political drama, horror and romance. His ability to paint Stalin in such a way to make the reader quake with fire is matched by talent for creating truly heartbreaking characters: the children who find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy, the parents…. A gripping read and must surely be one of the best novels of 2013. ” NY Journal of Books

"Not just a thumpingly good read, but also essentially a story of human fragility and passions, albeit taking place under the intimidating shadow of a massive Stalinist portico." The National

"Seriously good fun... the Soviet march on Berlin, nightmarish drinking games at Stalin's countryhouse, the magnificence of the Bolshoi, interrogations, snow, sex and exile... lust adultery and romance. Eminently readable and strangely affecting." Sunday Telegraph

" "Hopelessly romantic and hopelessly moving. A mix of lovestory thriller and historical fiction. Engrossing." The Observer

“Gripping. Montefiore’s characters snare our sympathy and we follow them avidly. This intricate at times disturbing, always absorbing novel entertains and disturbs and seethes with moral complexity. Characters real+fictitious ring strikingly true.It is to a large extent Tolstoyan …..” The Australian

“Enthralling. Montefiore writes brilliantly about Love - from teenage romance to the grand passion of adultery. Readers of Sebastian Faulks and Hilary Mantel will lap this up. A historical novel that builds into a nail-biting drama … a world that resembles… Edith Wharton with the death penalty.” Novel of

Reviews

[Dmitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Party gave birth to me and raised me in its own image and likeness." - Stalin, writing upon taking power in 1929

"Here are some presents for you from God! I am the executor of his will." - Stalin, a note to Kosygin upon his gift of fish

"Only the saints are infallible. The Lord God can be accused of creating the poor." - Stalin, speaking to Minister Molotov

************

Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the life of Stalin through the 1917 revolution. Growing up in a small town near Tbilisi, Georgia, he had a troubled childhood with a violent alcoholic father and a devoted but impoverished mother who moved him from home to home. She was apparently attractive and afforded Stalin with three wealthy benefactors who assumed the role of a missing father. In early life he was an excellent student, first at a church high school and later at a seminary in Tbilisi, similar to a university, where he studied Latin and Greek, secular subjects and religious training for priesthood.

Scholar
Stalin also had a wild side, a natural leader of boyhood gangs and later as a rebellious reader of forbidden Marxist books. He was a bibliophile and talented tenor singer, a published and recognized poet by age seventeen, but expelled from the seminary short of graduation for failing to take final exams. At age twenty-one in 1900 he became an avowed atheist and revolutionary. In his own words, the seminary taught him “surveillance, spying, invasion of inner life and violation of feelings". He spoke the language of religion in Bolshevism, the church's cults, saints and icons projected upon himself.

Revolutionary
Stalin discovered the writings of Lenin soon after he left the school. In Tbilisi he plotted worker strikes with Marxists from the seminary and soon led 50 revolutionaries and 500 strikers. The Tsar's secret service stalked him, engaging in elaborate espionage with double and triple agents. From the beginning Stalin was more radical than his rivals, moving quickly to assassinations and bombings. Montefiore explains Bolshevism and Stalinism as a result of the violent, clannish and conspiratorial culture of Georgia, in order to reconcile the ruthless dictator with his obscure earlier background.

Terrorist
Stalin hid in Batumi, a port on the Black Sea. A Rothchild's oil refinery was set on fire and the prison stormed. The city was papered with pamphlets, informants killed, factory managers murdered. He agitated for worker strikes as the Cossacks massacred demonstrators. Stalin was imprisoned for the first of many times in 1902 and sent to a remote village in Siberia. Exile by the Tsar was nothing like the gulag system he would later employ. One could rent a room or house, as Lenin and Trotsky did, receive a state allowance, socialize with other radicals and share subversive literature.

Racketeer
Stalin escaped from Siberia in 1904 and returned to Tbilisi, where moderate Mensheviks and radical Bolsheviks fought political battles. Winning control of the Bolshevik committee in Georgia, Stalin came into communication with his hero Lenin. In St. Petersburg a 1905 demonstration led to the Bloody Sunday massacre, sparking revolution across the industrial cities, as Russia surrendered in its war with Japan. Ethnic battles broke out in Baku on the Caspian Sea. Stalin formed a brigade to extort protection money from the locals. Georgia entered a state of anarchy beyond the Tsar's control.

Politician
Stalin envisioned an overthrow of the Romanov throne and a separate socialist state in Georgia, unlike the international communism of Lenin. Nicholas II was forced to concede to a constitutional monarchy and free press, but factory worker and peasant rebellions went unabated, militias roaming the streets. Arsenals were raided while Tsarist pograms killed thousands of Jews. On the Black Sea sailors of the battleship Potemkin mutinied and Trotsky proclaimed himself leader of a parallel government in St. Petersburg. Traveling to Finland Stalin was chosen by Lenin as head of the Caucasus region.

Financer
Stalin met party members important to his future political life in Sweden's 1906 4th Party Congress, Dzerzhinsky later head of secret police and Voroshilov who purged the army in 1937. The Party renounced robbery and terrorism but Lenin abstained from voting; Stalin became his main source of funding. Experimenting with piracy on the Black Sea, the booty was used to buy arms in Europe. Meetings with Lenin in Berlin and London plotted further mayhem. The English press was thrilled to have famous anarchists in their midst. Maxim Gorky mingled with delegates and Jewish refugees.

Organizer
Stalin met Trotsky, who had just escaped from Siberia on a reindeer pulled sleigh, at London’s 1907 5th Party Congress. He considered Georgians provincial bumpkins, an attitude he would later come to regret. Although the Bolshevik faction won the majority, Stalin started to hate Mensheviks, Jews and intellectuals. Once back in Baku he worked to arm the Persian Constitutional Revolution that overthrew the Shah. Wealthy families of Europe helped to fund Bolsheviks, who would destroy their interests in Russia and Asia, either by a misguided altruism or to end strikes organized by his outfit.

Gangster
Stalin formed a hit squad to avenge a crackdown in Georgia by killing officers of the imperial army. He began a string of bank and train robberies in 1906 to fund Lenin's operations and pulled off a heist in 1907 which made headlines around the world. Gangsters bombed the central square in Tbilisi, shot police and soldiers, and stole a million rubles from the state. Stalin came to regard himself as a military commander although he had no training or experience. Money not sent to party headquarters was spent publishing propaganda on secret printing presses as gang members lived ascetic lives.

Romantic
Stalin had married the younger sister of a ex-seminarian and fellow revolutionary in 1906 and soon had a son. After her arrest and release by police looking for Stalin they hid out in Baku where she became ill, dying shortly later. At the funeral Stalin sobbed “This creature softened my heart of stone. She died, and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity.” At the burial he threw himself on top of her coffin but then abandoned his son. One day in Baku Stalin saved the baby girl of his neighbor and friend who had fallen into the Caspian Sea. She would become Stalin’s second wife.

Conspirator
Stalin suspected that his Caucasus organization was riddled with spies. He had his own contacts in the secret police and began a witch hunt to eliminate moles. Trials and executions became widespread and would remain so under his future rule. Montefiore discusses theories of rival revolutionaries and later historians, whether Stalin may have been a double agent for the Tsar, but sees them as unlikely. Instead Stalin cultivated contacts in the police who fed him information on who were spies in the Party, or just as often misinformation that led him to believe that loyal Bolsheviks were traitors.

Prisoner
Stalin met with Lenin in 1908 on Lake Geneva, and in need of money counterfeiting and kidnapping of oil tycoons and their children resumed in Baku. The police caught him and he was sent to prison, where he ruled the criminal inmates, ordering hits on informers and spies. He was exiled to the north in 1909. As was common in the communist culture, Stalin had numerous liaisons with female comrades during exile. He escaped again, like tens of thousands did each year, returning to Baku. Between 1908 and 1917 he had only a year at liberty. In exile he was editor of the Party paper Pravda.

Interloper
Stalin was drafted at the end of 1916 after dodging military service for years, to be sent west to fight the Kaiser, but was judged unfit for military service. Unknown to Stalin and his fellow exiles, protesters and army deserters had overthrown the Tsar and a provisional government installed. Released from exile he went straight to Petersburg. Socialist leaders were living abroad, Lenin, Bukharin and Trotsky. Molotov had led the riots but now Stalin vied for party control. Power was split between the Parliament and Soviet revolutionaries. Lenin clashed with Stalin on overthrow of the government.

Insider
Stalin greeted Lenin’s arrival by sealed train and pledged to support his radical program. Attacking the government for the war with Germany and land reform, Lenin harangued the crowds for a dictatorship of the proletariat. The Central Committee elected Lenin, Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev to a precursor of the Politburo and Lenin persuaded Trotsky to defect from the Mensheviks. Trotsky was a great orator and writer but he lost an internal power struggle with Stalin. A disastrous offensive against Germany and movements to secede by Finland and Ukraine weakened the government.

Schemer
Stalin was impatient with Lenin’s delay in seizing power. While Lenin was on a holiday break Bolshevik soldiers and sailors rose up, encouraged by Stalin, demanding the Soviet to lead. Mensheviks demurred, accusing Lenin of treason and German backing. Government troops surrounded the palace and fortress as Lenin went on the run. Suppressing the revolt Kerensky became Premier, but lacking military support he left to rally troops from the front. Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin pressed for action, the Winter Palace taken by Red Guards in October, and the provisional government deposed.

Montefiore is an Oxford trained historian, but 'Young Stalin' is not primarily an academic text, mostly without analysis of the political or economic context. As a biography aimed at a popular audience it is more successful. Since much of the content comes from memoirs written during Stalin's lifetime it is easy to be suspicious of how accurate or impartial the authors were. In this installment of his two part biography Montefiore's style of writing is a bit overwrought. 'The Court of the Red Tsar' is better written, about Stalin's later years in power, but his early development is interesting nonetheless.

[Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and meticulously written book about Stalin his road to power. His life reads like a (murderous and ruthless version of) an adventure novel and the author brings the subject very much alive
How can you have a revolution without shooting people

I found this book much more balanced than Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsarof the same author. My notes are not entirely well structured, but the book reads like an adventure novel, just with a protagonist who often instigates murders, bank robberies, arson and other morally dubious means to get what he wants.

Stalin robbing a bank on his 20th in the capital of Georgia is an explosive start to this book.
We follow Stalin becoming, from his father being a shoemaker and a drunkard, and him being doted on by his mother, who was rumoured to have had affairs. This being further made a real option by Staling being taking in by his rich godfather, said to be his real father.
His childhood is full of contradictions, from going to a priest school, being both academically excellent and rowdy, often coming home beaten up
Growing up in Gori, full of brawls and fights, where he hurt his left arm.
Barely missed a mass during his studies and being a singer who was hired to sing at weddings, but also threatening his teacher with death, for enforcing Georgian talking bans.

Being kidnapped by his father to a shoemaker factory, before he was readmitted to school by intervention of the exarch. Boarding school in its repressive way being a hotbed for future rebels.
Earning a 5, the highest mark, on well behavior at the seminary and his poetry being published as a teenager, and even included in anthologies of Georgian poetry. Also his singing was so good he was said to be able to become a professional. Overall his life reads as adventure novel, from taking a job as a meteorologist and then working in Batumi Stalin for the Rothschilds, who had a refinery in the city, and starting a fire in one of their owned warehouses. Triggering a massacre from the authorities trying to suppress a strike.

Other interesting things are Stalin prescribing reading lists to his henchmen and Tsarist bureaucracy misplacing him, not knowing where he was imprisoned for months.
Three year of exile in Siberia follow, but with a Tsarist allowance of 8 roubles a month. Meanwhile the political situation worsens, with 136 officials assasinated in Georgia during 1905.

Lenin being descended from both sides from nobles, and educated as a lawyer, clashing with the will to power of the more working class Stalin is an interesting angle that Simon Sebag Montefiore touches upon.

Maffia like expropriation and protection money claims by the Bolsjewiks follow, with bank raid revenues send to Lenin, situated in Finland in bottles of Georgian wine.
Even real piracy to fund the revolution is something coming back.

Another fact I didn't know was that in 1901 Baku produced half of world oil, and the Nobel brothers made a fortune on oil production, used to fund the Nobel prize.

Sexual escapades during his exiles, including a tryst with a 16 year schoolgirl.
Double and triple agents and infiltration follow, with again a 4 year exile in North Siberia, larger than Germany, UK and France but with only 12.000 people. Impregnating a 13 year old girl while he was 34 follows. Encircled by wolves and fishing for sturgeon and salmon.
Self-righteous indignation seems a constant methods applied by Stalin, with his will bending everyone to the greater good that always seems to align with his own benefit as well.

Less than 25.000 bolsjewiks in Russia at 1917, and more the ineptitude than the ruthlessness of the communist, in the take over of power.
Do you think any of us has experience in this - Lenin to Stalin during the October revolution
Chaos in storming the Winter Palace is also a moment when history could have turned out differently.

A compelling and richly textured book, on a fascinating and contradictory character who ruthlessly impressed himself on history.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Stalin before he was “Stalin.” While Montefiore's previous book, The Court of the Red Tsar, covers Stalin’s years in power, here we get a look into his childhood home and abuse, his questionable parentage, his career as a poet (who knew?!), his seminary schooling, his early crimes, arrests, exiles, his multiple girlfriends, his meeting with Lenin, his early rivalry with Trotsky, and his seemingly constant impregnating of teenagers and fathering of children he never met. Both his marriages are briefly explored, as are his mommy-issues. We get a sense of what might have created the detached, emotionless, egotistical, monstrous “Stalin” that we know. There’s a lot of “never before published” firsthand information and anecdotes from childhood friends, ex in-laws, old flames, acquaintances. Probably my favorite revelation was that Stalin’s lover later became his second mother-in-law and rumors went around that his much younger second wife was really his daughter (this was later debunked as the dates were a couple of years off). The book also includes some of his poetry, which was quite unexpected.

Montefiore's writing approach is accessible and I loved reading it. I’ll definitely be seeking out his other book.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to Nurture a Monster

Young Stalin is really good. Simon Sebag Montefiore writes is such an eloquent way, one can read his pros for hours. I picked this up as a break from reading a much longer book and I am glad I did.

Young Stalin is the precursor to Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and follows the birth of the Georgian Iosef Djugashvili or ‘Soso’ in 1878 and his growth into the Man of Steel: Stalin and his seizure of power in 1917. From questions over his paternity, an abusive father who died young, being flung into a monastery to train as a priest (which had the opposite effect and created the fanatic), womanising and abandoning children to becoming a terrorist and bank robber. Then finally massaging the ego of Vladimir Lenin and pulling power from the hands of Alexander Kerensky, this story is extremely action packed and exciting.

Essentially Stalin was not created, it was always there, a man with no real human connections, no sense of sentimentality or remorse. A lack of regard for human life, the revolution and Marxism was everything. It started when he was a child with his father befriending the political exile Poka and was nurtured in the strict Tibilsi Spiritual Seminary classes where he came into contact with more revolutionaries. Although the story is one of excitement, it was one of embarrassment, he missed fighting in the Great War due to his arm defect (the result of an accident with a carriage when he was child). He was a man who spent the war years in Siberia sitting around reading and dodging the draft before finally being rejected due to the disability anyway. For a man who saw himself as a soldier-politician this is only a minor detail, that he was not a solider? Nor was he an academic, but he was a ferocious reader and started with the revolutionary bible, What is to be Done? By Nioklay Chernyshevsky.

I really enjoyed Young Stalin, it was unputdownable. It filled in gaps and rehashed forgotten memories I have of the story. It is something I will revisit again. The bank robbery in Tiflis is exciting and told like a thriller novel.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I am planning to read, “Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar,” I thought it would make sense to read this volume first and I am so glad that I did.

This volume takes Stalin from his childhood, up to 1917, and encompasses so much. I knew very little about Stalin, before reading this, and so this was full of surprises for me. It begins with a bank raid – of which Stalin was involved in many – to get money for the cause. Montefiore writes as though this is fiction, rather than fact, and really draws the reader in.

Mind you, much of Stalin’s life reads like fiction. We have the poverty stricken childhood, the over-protective mother, and violent, drunken father. A child who is obviously bright, and intelligent, whose father is opposed to his receiving an education. Always in trouble, always rebellious, Stalin’s young life contained many contradictions. He almost became a priest, was always an obsessive reader and inspired great loyalty, friendship and love. Yet, he was argumentative, took deep dislikes to people, held a grudge, was thin skinned and was, indeed, always in trouble. In later years, this resulted in several visits to prison and to exile, including to Siberia. The book states, “a little piece of Siberia remained lodged in Stalin for the rest of his life.”

I enjoyed this biography immensely and look forward to reading on with the second volume in this biography.

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He was always in the company of cutthroats, blackmailers, robbers and gunslingers..." pg 146

This was a fantastic glimpse look into Stalin's youth before his political life really took off. I enjoyed the author's writing style and enjoyed his work about Stalin's later years as the leader of the Soviet Union. The readbility and delivery of information created an intriguing and enjoyable narrative about Stalin who needless to say was a merciless criminal acting inder the guise of politics and Marxist idealism. The narrrative of Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, Soso ran from his childhood up through 1918. It detailed his parents and childhood, his expulsion from seminary school for rebelliousness, and his knack for reading and even writing poetry. His sense of turbulence and pressed ideals for politcal unrest landed his arrest and exile into Siberia, his life of crime and gangster banditry acting as an armed chieftain, events leading up the Russian Civil War, and his rise through politics under Lenin.

Simon Sebag Montefiore did a good job of weaving the biographical, political, historical, and the Georgian cultural aspects that created a Stalin character forever remembered.

Josef Stalin will always be seen as a master of personal politics stemming from his clannish Caucasus upbrining that created fanaticism and loyalty, violence and ideas, an expert in gangsterism devout to Marxism believing in himself and in his own ruthless leadership as the only way to govern a country in crisis and to promote a mere ideal to a real utopia. pg 237

This was an excellent book about Josef Stalin and I would highly recommend Stalin: In The Court of The Red Star to get further in his time in the Soviet Union and later years. Thanks!

[Mahla · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.ساختار روایی و سرگذشت هیجان‌انگیز استالین، کتابِ مانتیفوری را به یک زندگینامه خواندنی و جالب توجه مبدل کرده بود.
سرگذشت زندگی پر پیچ و خمِ استالینِ کبیر، رهبر قدرتمندِ شوروی و اینکه چطور سوسوی کفاش‌زاده‌ و تهی‌دستی که در کوچه پس کوچه‌های فلاکت‌بارِ گرجستانِ آن سال‌ها رشد کرده بود و در مسیر آرزوی مادرش راه کشیش شدن می‌پیمود، از مدرسه علوم دینی مسیحیت، به ایمان به مارکسیسم رسید و در مقام شخص اولِ بی‌رحم و خونخوارِ شوروی، نفسِ ۲۰ تا ۲۵ میلیون نفر انسان را زیر چکمه‌های دیکتاتوریِ خود بُرید.
کتاب حقایق زیادی را دستگیر خواننده می‌کند تا در ذهنش روند شکل‌گیری شخصیتِ جبار و خون‌ریزی مثل استالین را مجسم کرده و تاثیرات روان‌شناسانه محیط تربیتی و فرهنگ عامه جامعه‌ای که فرد در آن رشد یافته را به‌خوبی درک کند.
خواندن کتاب، مخاطب را با سویه‌های جدیدی از زندگی جوزف جوگاشویلی آشنا می‌کند، به‌طوری که در بعضی موارد دوست نداریم تا باور کنیم، این سوسوی خوش‌خلق و مهربان، همان استالین بی‌رحم و کینه‌توز باشد.
تحقیقات و بررسی های دقیق مانتیفوری کمک شایانی بود به دریافت این حقیقت که سوسو به تنهایی استالین نشد، او محصول تربیت، محیط فرهنگی و فضای سیاسی غالب جامعه‌اش بود. محصول دنیایی غرق در دروغ، نیرنگ و توطئه، محصولِ گرجستانِ پاس کاری شده بین ایران و امپراطوری روسیه، محصول ظلمِ تزار و کتک‌های بی‌وقفه‌ی پدر و مادر، نواقص ظاهری، عقده‌های فروخورده‌ی دوران کودکی و در نهایت ساخته و پرداخته مبارزاتِ انقلابیِ بلشویک‌ها زیر پوستِ امپراطوریِ خاندان رومانُف‌.
علی ای‌حال داستان استالین جوان، از تولد تا به‌قدرت رسیدن بلشویک‌ها در انقلاب اکتبر، برای من پیامدهای آموزنده و تکان‌دهنده‌ای داشت. با وجود کتب دیگری که در خصوص دوران وحشت بزرگ خوانده بودم و جَو غالب بر روزهای حاکم بر تصفیه‌های پرشمارِ سال‌های دهه سی را می‌دانستم، شناخت روحیات و خلقیاتِ چنین شخصیتی، از بدو تولد تا رسیدن به‌قدرت، باعث شد به روند جان گرفتنِ  ظرفیت استثنایی او در نابودی و بی‌ارزش دانستن جانِ آدمی که به‌چنان فاجعه‌ انسانی عظیمی منجر شد پی‌ ببرم.
کتاب را توصیه می‌کنم، قبل از هرچیز برای عبرت گرفتن.
برای دریافتنِ ریزه‌کاری‌های شخصیت جبار و سرسخت استالین در کنار فجایعی که رقم زد، تا متر و معیاری باشد که هر روز و هر روز نگاهی به آئینه انداخت و از "استالین شدن" و "استالین ساختن" بر حذر بود.

[Tioarifi · Rating 5 out of 5]

روایت سوسو (استالین)از تولد در گرجستان تا انقلاب اکتبر

[Jamie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stalin was never inevitable. The brains, confidence, intellectual intensity, political talents, faith in and experience with violence, touchiness, vindictiveness, charm, sensitivity, ruthlessness, lack of empathy, the sheer weird singularity of the man, were in place – but lacking a forum. In 1917, he found the forum. (p. 352-353)

I have enjoyed Simon Sebag Montefiore’s books, and this one was no exception. It clearly explains, but never tries to justify, how Stalin became the monster that history knows, a man so poisoned with suspicion, resentment, and faith in violence that he murdered old friends and colleagues without compunction, along with many, many ordinary people. “Responsible for the deaths of around 20 to 25 million people, Stalin imagined he was a political, military, scientific and literary genius, a people’s monarch, a red Tsar.” (p. 376) He was paranoid, duplicitous, and merciless, but he was not mad; everything he did was for a purpose, and he always believed he was operating within Marxist-Leninist theory as he understood it.

This book does a good job looking how Stalin the child became Stalin the man, much of it based on newly uncovered research, including previously unpublished official records and private memoirs. As Stalin built his cult of personality those who had known him in his youth were encouraged to write their reminiscences, although the ones that edged closest to the truth could not be published and were hidden for decades. For instance, he had been a successful bank robber, whose profits were an important source of funds for Lenin’s movement, but accounts of bank robberies were deemed unseemly by the keepers of his memory and were filed away, though not destroyed – though many of their authors met that fate.

He was the only surviving child of a doting and over-protective mother who nevertheless often beat him, and a violent drunkard of a father who was opposed to his son’s being educated, even kidnapping him at one point to prevent him from going to school. Nevertheless, he and his mother had some protectors (several of whom are possibilities for being Stalin’s actual father), and through hard work and sacrifice his mother was able to scrape up enough money to send him to school. He excelled in his classes, and was always one of the top students so long as he was interested in the subjects. He developed a lifelong, almost obsessive, habit of reading, and while still a junior revolutionary put out a list of 300 books that members of the movement should read and discuss.

He was also a bully and a tyrant, who even as a young child insisted on always being the leader of his group, and demanded absolute obedience. His intelligence and forceful personality attracted many to his side, but any questioning of his orders or motives would result in immediate expulsion. He would eventually add to his groups people from all classes, including the nobility, but he also had a an affinity for thugs and killers. “Throughout his life, Stalin’s detached magnetism would attract, and win the devotion of, amoral, unbounded psychopaths.” (p. 7)

History is full of suggestions of things that might have been. In his youth Stalin was an accomplished poet in his native Georgian language, whose works were published and widely admired. He also had a singing voice beautiful enough to bring people to tears, and he spent years in a seminary acquiring a top classical education, so he could have been a renowned poet, a much loved professional singer, or risen to a high position in the Church (his mother’s dream was always for him to become a bishop).

By his teenage years in the last decade of the 19th century, Russia was starting the long process of collapse, as increasingly autocratic yet ineffective rule met with entrenched corruption, rising nationalism, and emerging revolutionary groups. The author never explains why Stalin was attracted to what would later be known as Bolshevism instead of one of the numerous other revolutionary factions, but it was likely because of its refusal to compromise and willingness to employ violence and criminality to attain its ends, which fit nicely with Stalin’s personality.

As his revolutionary ardor and involvement grew, his interest in his seminary studies declined, and he became a constant troublemaker, tormenting the priest-instructors, many of whom were themselves cruel and violent, but outmatched by Stalin’s cunning and ruthlessness. In the end, however, he was not expelled from the seminary, as many other histories report. “He was not thrown out for being a revolutionary, and he maintained polite relations with the seminary afterwards….Indeed, the Church bent over backwards to accommodate him letting him off repaying his scholarship (480 rubles) for five years; they even offered him a chance to resit the finals and a teaching job.” (p. 73)

He was now set on the path to being a full time revolutionary, a man who lived in the shadows, moving frequently, inspiring others to violence but not getting his own hands dirty. He slipped through the hands of the authorities so many times, often under dubious circumstances that there has been a persistent rumor that he was in fact an informer for the Okhrana, the Tsar’s secret police, and protected by them. The author examines this allegation and concludes that it is probably not true, and that a more likely reason is the incompetence and venality of the authorities.

On the other hand, while Stalin himself often escaped capture, the Okhrana succeeded in planting agents among the revolutionary groups at all levels, eventually including Roman Malinovsky, who was a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee in the last years of the Tsar, and betrayed almost all of the leaders, including Stalin. The memories of so many double agents within their ranks inspired paranoia in the communist leadership, and partly explains the regular purges within their ranks that culminated in the atrocities of the late 1930s, “The Okhrana may have failed to prevent the Russian Revolution, but they were so successful in poisoning revolutionary minds that, thirty years after the fall of the Tsars, the Bolsheviks were still killing each other in a witch hunt for nonexistent traitors.” (p. 221)

Stalin was eventually arrested and deported to Siberia several times. Deportations under the Tsars were nothing like what they would become under Stalin himself. Revolutionaries were allowed to meet, to plan, to receive books and money. The main punishment inflicted was simple boredom, and like Stalin many of them repeatedly escaped.

He was released from his last Siberian exile in 1917, as the Tsar’s government was crumbling and the various factions were vying for power. It was at this time that the Germans made one of the most colossal blunders of the century, sending Lenin in a sealed train back to Russia, where he immediately started plotting the overthrow of the fragile interim government installed by Alexander Kerensky. The Bolsheviks’ triumph was not inevitable, and there were still factions loyal to both the Tsar and to those wanting representative governments, and both Lenin and Stalin were marked men if they had fallen into their hands. In another of history’s great what-if moments, the two of them were whisked out of their headquarters only minutes before it was raided. Had they been captured they surely would have been killed, and the Bolsheviks probably would have joined a coalition with other parties, as others among their leaders wanted, and the course of history would have been very different.

The book ends with Lenin’s successful takeover of the government and his first attempts to suppress all other factions. The second volume of this biography, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar was published first, and the author’s understanding of what was to come later helps to inform and make sense of Stalin’s early life. Over and over again, people who were instrumental to Stalin’s rise were later to be murdered. “The fate of Stalin’s Bolshevik comrades was tragic, never mind the fate of the Soviet people. Kamenev and Zinoviev were shot in 1936, Bukharin in 1938, Trotsky was murdered with an icepick in 1940 – all on Stalin’s orders. During 1937-38, around one and a half million people were shot. Stalin personally signed deathlists for almost 39,000 people, many of them old acquaintances.” (p. 373)

This is an excellent biography: detailed, insightful, well researched, and written in a style that keeps the reader engaged. It helps that Stalin’s early life was dramatic and so filled with remarkable incidents that he almost seems like a fictional character, but there is a great deal of good information here, helping to explain the development of one of the twentieth century’s most important, most malign, figures. This book is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the man, the movement, or the history of the twentieth century.

[Adam Floridia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even the preface starts off strong with a brilliantly vivid description of Stalin's first bank heist. That particular narrative reads more like an action novel than a biography.

Similarly, the author portrays Soso's (Stalin's) childhood home of Gori, Georgia as a hotbed of mischief, both major and minor. From all out town brawls to school field trips to witness an execution, the town reminds me of an almost cartoonish depiction of a criminal haven. Furthermore, Stalin's NUMEROUS escapes from capture, from incarceration, and from exile seem like things that could only happen in a bad movie. Once Stalin reaches his twenties, the book borders on repetitive (as is Stalin's life): Stalin gets exiled, sleeps with some local teenagers, escapes, stirs up trouble, repeat.

All in all, an engrossing historical biography--and this coming from someone who does not particularly enjoy history. Reading this definitely made me yearn to learn more about Stalin's time in power and the Terror he unleashed, my current knowledge being limited to what I need to know to teach Animal Farm. If Sebag-Montefiore's other Stalin book weren't 800+ pages, I would be starting it right now.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много изненади крие тази книга, като първата от тях е, че това на корицата е снимка на Сталин на младини.

Разбира се, тогава той се е казвал просто Йосеп Джугашвили, с прякор Сосо и дори не е говорил руски. Сталин е име, което сам си е измислил (означава Стоманения) по-късно като артистичен псевдоним, с който е подписвал статиите си в революционните издания, а до края на живота си не се научава да говори руски без твърдия акцент на родната му Грузия.

Симон Монтефиоре е извъшил колосални по обем проучвания, за да ни даде най-подробната двутомна биография на съветския диктатор, която някога е писана. Количеството литература и документация относно Сталин е монументално така или иначе, едва ли не всеки негов сподвижник е издавал собствена биография от типа "моите дни със Сталин", царската полиция има томове и томове документация в архивите си относно неговата дейност, всички негови писма са запазени и т.н.

Та както казах, младият живот на Сталин крие доста изненади - защото повечето от нас, дори тия, които се интересуват от история и история на СССР конкретно, знаят за него главно като касапина на Ленин и по-късно като един от най-смъртоносните диктатори в историята (или като много нужната силна ръка, извела СССР до победа над нацистите, спасила руския народ и довела до благоденствие и равенство за всички - ако питате Корнелия Нинова или дядо ми).

Колко от днешните хора обаче знаят, че Сталин (тогава Сосо) е бил изключително даровит поет? Странен със сигурност, но много чаровен, страшно енергичен, много интелигентен и начетен млад революционер?

Закален по бандитските улици на Грузия, в бурнатите времена на безнадеждно изостаналата Руска империя, Сосо плува като риба във вода - от юношеска възраст разделя времето си между четене на книги и подмолна дейност, изявява се като способен организатор, добър оратор, но най вече като безскрупулен бандит, организиращ рекета, обирите и терористичните акции, чрез които революционните организации в Русия тогава се финансират и набират сила.

Покрай него в книгата плуват и други от големите риби на СССР, които можем да разгледаме епизодично и също да се учудим на прочита на историята относно тях. Ленин и Троцки са представени като дребни, злобни интелектуалци, радикализирали вижданията на Сталин (който по начало повече залита към либералният грузински национализъм).

Благодарение на всички запазени документи по темата, авторът има възможността да опише живота на Сталин буквално ден по ден от раждането му до идването на власт на върха на СССР и да има по повече от един източник за всяко събитие и действие - както полицейски сводки, така и спомени на очевидци, официални съобщения, архиви на преса и др.

[Patrick Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

February 2016. then on 31 July and 1 Aug. 2018 - edited for clarity.
Listened to this on Audio CD. Fascinating. Very well read by James Adams. Paints Stalin as much more intellectual than most describe him. One cause: Trotsky was a powerful writer, who totally misjudged and demeaned Stalin and has had much better press. Another reason, socialists who still love the idea of socialism, find it very hard to justify and explain how the Soviet Union could fall prey to this man Stalin, had to paint him as an evil no-nothing, not a product of the system he, Lenin, Marx, Trotsky and the rest created.

Did you know the city of Vienna in 1913 was where ALL the following people lived:
Stalin, Lenin, Bukharin, Trotsky, Tito, Otto Bauer, Hitler, Max Weber, Freud, Richard Strauss, in addition to Wittgenstein and the "Viennese Circle" of philosophers?

The author notes all (or most) of these famous and infamous individuals, especially Hitler, for obvious reasons. But of course he missed the too-little known, but most powerful ideological enemies of Stalin and the other Marxists: The Austrian economists: Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser, Mises, and Hayek, all native to and living in Vienna then. Mises had not yet written his famous article, then later turned into his book, Socialism, destroying the idea that a pure socialist society could be a rational or thriving one, but rather, would be reduced to the lowest form of survival.

Stalin was in Vienna in 1913, at the behest of Lenin, to write a position paper for the Bolshevik party of Russia on the "nationalities" issue. "Greater Russia" was composed of many, many various nationalities which the Tzars had conquered and made part of Russia (including of course, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Chechens, etc.) Mises had just finished his great book: Theory of Money and Credit, which had won him high recognition in the realm of economic theory and government policy. He had probably just begun his own study of the subject Stalin was working on, but from a very different perspective. His book was to be published in 1919, just after WWI: Nation, State and Economy. Too bad they never met. The world, and in particular, the Russian people, and individuals of nationalities later conquered, subjugated and in many places annihilated by Stalin could only have been better off if Mises and Stalin met.

The book is quite good at showing how Stalin steadily climbed the Bolshevik web of intrigue to the top (up through 1917, with many references to what happened later, fully described by the author in his earlier book "Stalin - the Court of the Red Tsar"), and made himself invaluable to Lenin & "the Party." His bank robberies, vandalism, extortion, piracy, killings, secrecy, paranoia, unending philanderings, are all here in graphic detail. But additional information about his studiousness, his range and depth of reading and discussing great books, his writing, his powerful polemics, his singing voice and his poetry are all fully revealed. He was actually a very promising and published poet in a country, Georgia, which had a passion for poetry and poets.

But what the book did not dwell enough on, in my view, was what was it about Marxism-Leninism that stirred Stalin's highest passion, held his resolve through exile and near extinction, and quenched his thirst for knowledge? This is the key issue to me, what a biography of one of the biggest mass murderers of all time should explore in depth. Many, many clues are given. But too many are stray, not focused on this key issue.

It was also interesting to me that the author, Simon Sebag Montefiore, classified Stalin as a "killer in only Hitler's league" when, by the numbers, Hitler was probably much the lesser (at least regarding their own countrymen), but Mao (unmentioned) probably beat him out by many millions of murders. See the works of Rummel - Death by Government, The Black Book of Communism by several authors and other books for the full grisly facts.

Another curious aspect of the book was the author's constant reference to many, many "memoirs" of key people in Stalin's life. I have NEVER read references to so many memoirs in ANY biography as in this one. Virtually ALL the main folks in his life, including his own mother and the lowest and youngest Siberian lover's memoirs were referenced. It's either incredible scholarship or the strangest thing I have ever heard. I must confess that I am a footnote reader from way-back, so listening to a biography like this on audio CD, without the ability to check footnotes/end notes, leaves me feeling somewhat helpless. Can all these memoirs actually be real??? I do like the way the author fairly often notes that the particular memoir he uses could or could not be taken at face value. Background motives and credibility of memoir or history writers referenced were questioned and seemingly used appropriately. That sounded good to me, though I am far from an expert on this subject.

An inconsistency in the book:
At various times he said Stalin had "thin skin" (couldn't take criticism well) but other times he said Stalin was very reserved and "in-control" in very tough/tense situations - being interrogated by the police, commanding his bank heists, extortion plans, and "Mauserists" etc. (So called because they took their Mauser pistols everywhere they went and were not shy about using them.)

A good part of the book: It smashed the minor myth that the Tsarist government was as totalitarian as the communists. Not even close when you compare the sentences and harshness of the imprisonments and exiles in Tsarist vs. Communist Russia.

A point I pondered during and after reading the book: Why were the police and Okhrana so inept in actually prosecuting and putting away Stalin and his compatriots of the very real crimes they committed: robbery, extortion, kidnapping, arson, piracy, murder, bribery, etc? The book could have asked and explored the question:
Was there anything the Tsar's regime could have done to prevent Stalin from turning into a communist, or continuing and strengthening his Bolshevik resolve during the years of his youth? The exile punishments certainly did not work well (achieve their purpose) with Stalin nor on many (if not most) of his compatriots (Lenin, Trotsky, etc).

Still another curiosity of the book was the author's lack of significant description of how Lenin got the German government to arrange the infamous sealed train to Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1917, during WWI. Granted this is a book about Stalin and not Lenin. But still, this was a pretty momentous occurrence, since Lenin was the motive force and strategist, behind the Bolsheviks and their upcoming putsch at that time. Lenin, Stalin and the other top Bolsheviks had later to deal with how to make Lenin not appear to be seen as a traitor to Russia, with his coming, via Germany, the WWI enemy! There was no reference at all to the very readable and accessible "Lenin in Zurich" by Solzhenitsyn, which dealt with the Bolshevik sympathizing businessman (ugh - beware of this type!!!) who actually made it possible. Highly recommended ancillary reading.

The book on CD is fairly long - 13 CDs, and some parts were a little tough to follow - how many Russian names can you distinguish and keep straight, with all the intrigue that was going on, especially when each Russian usually had at least two different names. Heck, just telling Kamo from Kaminovsky was tough enough. But the narrator was really good and if you want to know about how Stalin came to be in the top three in the Soviet Union during the revolution, and destined to beat out Trotsky to later become #1, this book seems quite good.

[Mostafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

" أوصت تعليمات لينين بإطلاق النار والقتل و"شنق الطفيليين..العناكب..العلق". سأل :"كيف يمكنكم إقامة الثورة من دون جنود جاهزين للقتل؟ إن لم نكن قادرين علي إطلاق النار على المخربين من الحرس الأبيض، فأي ثورة هذه؟ ليست سوي كلام فارغ ووعاء من العواطف!"
لم يكن ستالين ليكون ممكناً لولا أن قام لينين، في الأيام الأولى للحكم، بتطبيق طريقة كامينيف المعتدلة في خلق الآلية لسلطة مطلقة وغير محدودة. هذا هو المنبر الذي تجهز له ستالين علي نحو متميز. يمكن ستالين أن يصبح ستالين الآن.
بعد أشهر من ثورة أكتوبر، استخدم لينين وأقطابه تلك السلطة للقتال في الحرب المدنية. في ذلك الحين شهد ستالين مع كتائبه، تلك السلطة الغير محدودة في شن الحرب وتغيير المجتمع بالقتل العشوائي. إن شخصية ستالين المتأذية والموهوبة، كانت مؤهلة ومنجذبة بشدة نحو مثل هذا الإفتراس الوحشي. وبعد ذلك، لم تكن آلة الكبت والقسوة ونفسية جنون الإضطهاد الشاعرة بتآمر مستمر ورغبة بالحلول الدموية المفرطة لجميع التحديات، مجرد صفة مسيطرة، لكنها متألقة ومؤسساتية وسامية نحو إيمان بولشفي لاأخلاقي يسيطر على حماسة المحرر. في بيروقراطية واسعة تدار كقرية منحازة إلى أقاربها، أظهر ستالين نفسه كسيد للسياسة الشخصية.
لقد ترعرع في القوقاز المتعصب، قضى فترة نضجه بكاملها في مخبأ تآمري، في تلك البيئة الغريبة حيث العنف والفتن والولاء، هي السلع الأساسية، ازدهر في غابة النزاع المستمر والدراما والتوتر، وصل إلي السلطة كذلك الشئ النادر. رجل العنف والأفكار معاً، خبير في العصابات، وماركسي ورع، لكن فضلاً عن كل شئ آخر، كان يؤمن بنفسه وبالقيادة المتحجرة الخاصة، كالطريقة الوحيدة لحكم بلد يعيش في أزمة، ولتقديم مثال مطلق لمدينة مثالية حقيقية.
في حكومة غير محدودة تديرها مؤامرة كبرى من إراقة الدماء وتأييد عشائري، من هو الشخص الأكثر أهلية للنجاح؟"

ذلك الجزأ من الكتاب، كان الأهم في نظري، لأنه يلخص المضمون في سطور، أو أقرب إلي تلخيص مضمون الكتاب وما يناقشه، طالما تصورت أن الطاغية شخصاً ولد كما هو، أنت حتى لا تتخيل أنه ولد طفلاً عادياً وكبر ومر بالكثير من الأطوار التي جعلته ما هو عليه، هذا ما يحاول المؤرخ فعله في ذلك الكتاب، بناء ستالين من الصفر، منذ أن كان في بطن أمه، يبدأ الكاتب بحادثة قرصنة من تلك الحوادث التي أشرف ستالين على تنظيمها ثم يذهب ليحكى حكاية هذا الطاغية منذ البداية.
يستخدم سيمون في أسلوبه أسلوباً يشبه كثيراً نورمان ميلر، هو لا يعتمد على السرد والحكي ولكن يحاول أن ينقل الصورة والحدث من خلال الإعتماد على شهادات الأشخاص والإقتباس من مذكراتهم. وهو أسلوب ممتع جداً.
لا يمكنك النظر إلى هذا الكتاب بإعتباره فقط تأريخاً لستالين، لأنه يلقى النظر على آخرين ممن عاصروه وحركوا الثورة البولشفية، وأيضاً يلقي نظرة على روسيا القيصرية التي كانت تحتضر وفي آواخر أيامها، والحياة في مستعمراتها، وصعود عدد من الشركات الرأسمالية في ذلك الوقت في مناطق النفط مثل باكو، والإنشقاق الداخلي للحركة الماركسية بين بولشفيين ومنشفيين.
في الفصل رقم 25 يفند الكاتب ببراعة ومنطقية ما قيل عن عمالة ستالين للأوخرانا شرطة القيصر ويكشف الستار عن حقيقة الدليل الوحيد الذي تم إستعماله لإثبات هذه السخافة.
كتاب مهم جداً، لمن كان مهتماً بشخصيات القرن الحافل بالأحداث والحروب والطغاة والحكام، يقرأ ويبنى عليه مرحلة أخرى لفهم التاريخ.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really entertaining read about the life of Stalin... before he actually became Stalin. Filled with a wealth of information about his upbringing, family, friends, relationships, gangster days and the beginnings of the original Politburo in Communist Russia. Would recommend to anyone interested in the personal history of one of the world's most hated dictators.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When it suited him, he borrowed both the man’s girlfriend and his passport."

" 'Stalin recalled the lives of other Old Bolsheviks and told anecdotes about them.' ” 'He mentioned names that made the guests shiver slightly, for they were people whom Stalin himself had wantonly murdered. Sometimes he mused that they had been wrongly executed -- on his orders.' “'I was surprised,'” says Charkviani, “'that when he mentioned people who were unjustly liquidated, he talked with the calm detachment of a historian, showing neither sorrow nor rage -- but speaking without rancour, with just a tone of light humour …' ”

The latter quote from Montefiore's Young Stalin sent a chill down my spine. And it probably gets to the heart of the nuance of the book. Stalin's humanity comes through in his monstrousness. Before Stalin was the Iron Man of the Soviet Union, he was a young poet, a writer of flowery verse and prose, a singer whose voice could melt the hearts of women and girls, from 13 on up -- ages, we learn, that were fair game for his ample womanizing -- a bank robber, a master jailbreak artist, a seminarian whose priestly penchant for listening and sweet talk got him anything he wanted. Stalin was probably the only guy who could get sent to a Siberian prison and still turn it into a drunken revelry.

Needless to say, Stalin's almost unbelievable life was the stuff of legend. Handsome, strong, intelligent, worldly, aloof; young Stalin charmed everyone, and eventually worked himself up the chain of the Communist Party to the very side of Lenin himself, a man who didn't trust Stalin but realized his cold, strong-arm tactics and communication and diplomacy stills made the rustic Georgian a necessary jack-of-all-trades in the run-up to revolution and beyond.

I'm not going to detail this book too much. Suffice it to say, it's a phenomenal achievement -- absolutely un-put-downable; the best book I have read in a long time, and the first in about two years to get a five-star rating from me.

Ask me why a real historical person who was a cold-blooded, seductive, bank robbing, murderous, jailbreaking political adventurer, who became one of the most feared human beings in history, is not the subject of a Hollywood film instead of some comic-book goofballs with silly superpowers and I'd have no clue, other than to say that Hollywood sucks and people are morons.

-KR@KY 2021

Also, if Stalin were still around, he'd be on Goodreads, as he was a voracious reader.

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can imagine a clickbaity description: "the book Stalin does not want you to read!". While historical and well researched in its nature, this book reads like an action novel and it's one of the best character studies I've ever read. It's entertaining, intense, revealing and sobering at times, showing how a tyrant is made. Having been to some of the places described in the book, it all becomes a bit even more tangible. I wish more history was written like that. A good book can be both informative and accessible.
My only qualm is related to the description of the relationship with the 13-year-old, which is seen as a seduction, rather than what it was. Yeah, the times were different, but the kid was treated terribly. We can acknowledge that.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a cool guy. Real Robin Hood bank robber, taking from the rich and giving to the central committee, always one step ahead of the tsar and his okhrana henchmen. Lot of affairs with bolshevik babes and I guess he ran some kind of underground journal? Badass. Also lots of cool stuff about going into exile and being pulled around on reindeer sleighs and escaping exile. And some good clowning on that nerd Trotsky.

Not going to bother reading the sequel about his life after 1917. Assume he either continues being a very cool guy or mellows out a bit.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best biography I've read in a long time. I didn't know much about Stalin and had only basic knowledge of Russian history before I started, but Montefiore's book leaves me hungry for more.

The book begins with an excellent "hook," describing a sensational bank robbery Stalin perpetrated in Tiflis, Georgia. It's also very well researched, with lots of endnotes and footnotes (but no so many footnotes as to distract from the text). Even better, it's written in such a way that the characters, even the peripheral ones, come alive. I had no idea there were so many colorful characters in the dying Russian Empire! Surprisingly, many passages were excruciatingly funny, such as the description of Stalin's "pet psychopath" Kamo, feigning insanity to the point where he actually became insane.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book, even if you're not all that interested in Stalin or Russia. (After all, I wasn't.)

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

List of Illustrations
Stalin Family Tree
Maps
Introduction
List of Characters
Note

--Young Stalin

Stalin's Names, Nicknames, Bylines and Aliases
Acknowledgements
Select Bibliography
Index

(The full and extremely extensive references for this book are available in the hardback edition and also on the author's website at: http://www.simonsebagmontefiore.com. In order to make the paperback a manageable and readable size, the author and publishers have decided not to include the notes in the paperback. We hope readers will agree that, for most, the balance of convenience is best served by this policy.)

[Carl R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Simon Sebag Montefiore’s The Court of the Red Tsar (Sabout Stalin’s post revolution reign I didn’t want to read more. I think Montefiore’s writing is pedestrian and that he somehow made the story of the man who is arguably history’s most brutal and bloody dictator and of his alliances with the western world’s greatest mid-century leaders less than transporting work. However, I have a neighbor who’s a glutton for this kind of thing, so I fell heir to a copy of Young Stalin, and here we are.
This one is infinitely more readable than the first, though it still doesn’t measure up to the lively novelistic quality that Henri Troyat achieves in his story of Catherine the Great, let alone of David McCullough. The difference here is that Montefiore tells a story as much as he presents his catalogue of facts, figures, and biographical sketches. I even caught myself rooting for the Bolsheviks over the Menscheviks during the short time in 1917 when the issue was in doubt.
Most important, I now think I know a bit about Stalin the inner man, how he got to be such a brute, and what, aside from position and savagery, gave him his power over others.
Stalin was the perfect combination of nature and nurture to become a brutal revolutionary. He was born into nearly bestial poverty with a probably-promiscuous mother and a drunken swine of a father (who may or not have been his real one). His mother wanted him educated (against daddy’s wishes) and sacrificed and begged and probably prostituted herself to get the money to send him to school and then seminary.
He was a born leader in a Georgian (not Russian--it’s different, I found out.) hamlet ruled by street gangs. So his training in thuggery and physical violence began early. The whole town ran that way. On holy days, the men would drink and brawl--starting with the three-year-olds--in the streets. It was just the way things were. Good training for resisting the cossacks who were sure to run another pogrom sometime soon.
He was naturally contemptuous of authority and as ruthless toward others as his parents were to him. He led rebellions (often connected with forbidden books. He was quite the reader.) in seminary, joined anti-establishment groups well before he knew about Marx. He became a Marxist, but dictatorship of the proletariat to him meant dictatorship over the proletariat by an oligarchy--headed by himself, of course. He had to be in charge. Just had to. Any political position he ever advocated was calculated for his personal advantage rather than to fulfill some philosophical premise. He despised as tea-talkers those who would rather talk than kill and steal for the cause. In addition to all that he was quite a competent poet, given to romantic versifying. Montefiore prefaces each section of the book with one of his poems, and they’re not half-bad in a conventional sort of way.
Most of his early youth was spent as a robber and brigand for “the movement,” sending stolen money to the exiled Lenin and Trotsky and getting arrested and sent to Siberia for his pains. Siberian exile in Czarist Russia meant not prison, but life in a small, cold village far from the lights of St. Petersburg, and most of the time he escaped well before his term was up. Then he’d get arrested again. He did serve out nearly all of his last four year term because they sent him so far up the river not even he could get out. He was saved by the WWI draft, for which he turned out to be ineligible once medically examined because of a right arm lame from a childhood accident. All of which brings us right up to the collapse of the Czar and the beginning of the revolution.
All during his criminal, underground life he was beset by spies from the Czar’s police. Of course, he had his own bribed moles inside the police as well. He also ran protection rackets that enabled him to live briefly in mansions of oil barons--including the Rothschilds and Nobels. However, he seldom stayed long anywhere or with anyone, seldom took money for himself. He was never acquisitive in that way. Eventually he built a number of villas and retreats, but they were as much for security as luxury. He had to keep his enemies guessing his whereabouts.
He had affairs right along--sex was apparently abundant among revolutionaries, and his charisma was particularly attractive. He sired some kids he neglected, and he buried a wife whom he had virtually abandoned. All in all, an intelligent, charismatic, ruthless, and despicable man whose historical timing was unfortunately just right to grab a big hunk of power.
He wasn’t born Stalin. He had to work his way to it. From Josef Vissrionovich Djugashvili through thirty or so aliases and bylines to Joseph Steelman. Lenin was just as bloodthirsty as Stalin. Some of the Bolsheviks in the beginning wanted to give some amnesty and he simply declared that without plenty of blood there was no such thing as a revolution. Stalin was his perfect agent. Trotsky gave nice speeches, but Stalin considered him a tea talker, kept him at a distance, and finally had him ice-picked in 1940.
Nature loves a vacuum and doesn’t seem to care how it gets filled. In this case, she filled the empty power space left by the Romanovs with a poisonous substance that killed 20-25 million people over the course of thirty-seven years. Quite a guy.

[Tomq · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter is intrinsically fascinating.

Stalin grows up in relative poverty, born of an abusive alcoholic father, and a manipulative, promiscuous and resourceful mother. His mother, Keke, harbors the greatest ambitions for her third son, having lost the previous two in their infancy. An atheist from a young age, "Soso Djugashvili" (Stalin), encouraged by Keke, is learning to become a priest at the seminary. Despite this mismatch, he is studious, an avid reader of Tolstoy or Victor Hugo; he understands the importance of education.

But he is also a thug and a bully; he develops into a fanatic believer in communism and a careless womanizer. He engages in criminal revolutionary activities for a couple decades, including ordering bank robberies, murders, rackets; at the same time, he learns to maneuver in political circles, to win allies, to eliminate rivals, to argue his views, and to hide from the secret police. For young Stalin, criminal ultra-violence, political activity, unrestrained personal ambition, and fanatical devotion to the revolution, are all complementary facets of a single unified life, of just one struggle. This drive towards total power is, according to Montefiore, the product of a combination of circumstances including personality, family, friends, and the particular atmosphere of the time and place.

It seems an extraordinarily engaging story when summarized into a couple paragraphs, and you'd think it would comfortably fill over 500 pages. Alas, after 150 pages I was so exhausted by Montefiore's awful writing that I began skimming through the chapters and resumed exhaustive reading only around page 300. There are three major problems:

1. The lack of structure. What structure there is (parts, chapters, even paragraphs) was slapped onto a massive, shapeless blob of text. There is no inherent structure, only a superficial organization of a seemingly huge collection of notes. Chapter titles very loosely correlate to their contents; sometimes only two or three pages of a chapter bear any relationship to the chapter's title. As a consequence, this reads more like a timeline of a person's activities than like a compelling portrait of that person.

2. The lack of historical context. Only minimal historical context is provided, and the personal motives of the various individuals are rarely investigated. As a result, reading about young Stalin's gesticulations is like watching a (bad) pantomime: we see which actions Stalin is performing, but we're consistently missing much of the narrative context (personal and historical) in which those actions would acquire meaning and weight. Why did Stalin do X, instead of Y or Z? This book doesn't just fail to answer the question - it does not even ask it. The availability of Y and Z is never even be mentioned; X happened, and that's all you need to know.

3. The focus on the grotesque at the expense of the essential. Because the author knows a great deal about the historical context and because his research activity consists in finding new factoids, great emphasis is put on presenting the "sexiest" factoids, while no effort is put into synthesizing the evidence. The book contains more in-depth discussion of anecdotes of Stalin cross-dressing to evade the secret police than of his ideological development, which, the author appears to believe, we ought to already know everything about.

Overall, I didn't waste my time. I learned important things. But I wasn't the right public for this book. I'm no historian; when I picked up this biography, I was looking for the portrait of a real person, not for a stream-of-consciousness regurgitation of somebody's historical research.

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, the "what ifs" of history - if only Stalin had obeyed his mother's wishes and become a priest (or his father's and become a cobbler). But Simon Montefiore's Young Stalin explores why he didn't.

Young Stalin fills in the period from Stalin's birth in 1878 to the success of the Bolsheviks in 1917, only touched on in Montefiore's earlier biography, The Court of the Red Tsar. The book attempts to explain from whence the brutal megalomaniacal dictator of both Soviet and Western myth emerged, and (I think) succeeds pretty well.

Stalin was a complicated man. At one moment, a vicious thug; at another, a serious intellectual; and at another, a creditable romantic poet (Montefiore prefaces each section with one of Soselo's (one of Stalin's many aliases) poems). He was also an unrepentant womanizer, neglectful and tyrannical father, and an uncompromising true believer in Marxism and Lenin. Montefiore is quite good at recreating the Georgian milieu where Stalin grew up and the dysfunctional family he was born into. The Caucasus was a tribal culture steeped in machismo, honor and violence. Home was dominated by an abusive, alcoholic father and an abusive, smothering mother. Conditions only exacerbated by the equally abusive environs of Tbilisi's streets and the seminary where Stalin studied.

Most would have ended up as many of Stalin's friends did: dead or eventually middle-aged men who held down working-class jobs, married and raised another generation. Unfortunately for millions, Stalin was too intelligent, too ambitious and too able to be satisfied with that destiny, and he found an outlet for his energies in the revolutionary groups that flourished in Tsarist Russia.

I'm still not sure why Stalin became a Marxist. Montefiore focuses on a straight narrative of events without indulging in too much psychoanalysis regarding motives and inspirations. Admirable in many ways but I would have welcomed a bit more speculation (as long as it's clearly identified as such).

The reader should also be aware that they'll need a pretty good background in late Tsarist history or they'll get lost and frustrated amid all the Russian, Georgian, Ossetian, et al., names, not to mention the larger background history that Montefiore largely assumes is known to the reader. Fortunately, I'm not entirely ignorant of the period but, even so, I've been motivated to hunt up the Service and Conquest bios of Stalin and Lenin so I can get a better appreciation of the period.

With that in mind, I would definitely recommend this work to the interested.

[فهد الفهد · Rating 4 out of 5]

ستالين الشاب زعيماً وشاعراً ولصاً وكاهناً وزير نساء

في عام 2005 م نشر المؤرخ البريطاني سيمون سيباغ مونتيفيوري المتخصص في تاريخ الشرق الأوسط والتاريخ الروسي كتاباً يتناول حياة الطاغية الشهير ستالين بعنوان (ستالين: بلاط القيصر الأحمر)، معتبراً في كتابه هذا ستالين أحد أكثر الشخصيات التي صاغت شكل العالم في القرن العشرين، ولأن الكتاب تناول حياة ستالين منذ الثورة الروسية 1917 م وحتى وفاته 1953 م، وهي السنوات التي عرف من خلالها ستالين، ورسخ فيها صورته الدموية، قام المؤلف بتأليف كتابه الثاني ونشره بعد ثلاث سنوات بعنوان (ستالين الشاب زعيماً وشاعراً ولصاً وكاهناً وزير نساء)، هدف الكتاب هو كشف الحياة شبه السرية لستالين ما قبل الثورة الروسية، فلذا يغطي هذا الكتاب فترة 38 سنة من حياة ستالين، من حين ولادته في غوري سنة 1878 م وحتى قيام الثورة الروسية سنة 1917 م.

مهمة الكتاب الأول عن ستالين الرجل كانت معقدة، فلذا بدأت المهمة التالية شبه مستحيلة، لأن ستالين بكل بساطة بسط نفوذه على كل مفاصل الحياة في ��لاتحاد السوفيتي، قتل كل معارضيه، بل ورفاقه فيما بعد، ولم يكتف بذلك بل حاول بسط سيطرته على الماضي والمستقبل، فقام بمحو وإتلاف كل الوثائق عن ماضيه، وأرهب كل من عايشوه بحيث لم يعد أحد يجرؤ على الكتابة عنه، فما بالك بنقده، ومن يقرأ تاريخ ستالين ما بعد الثورة يرى بشاعة ما كان يفعله، فعندما كان يقتل أحد رفاقه أو أعوانه، كان يقوم بإزالته من كل الصور التي تجمعهما معاً، بحيث قد تمر الصورة الواحدة بعدة عمليات تعديل، في كل مرة يقتل فيها ستالين أحد الموجودين في الصورة، ولمن أراد القراءة أكثر حول الموضوع ليبحث فقط تحت العنوان التالي (Censorship in the Soviet Union).

كانت هذه محاولة ستالين للتحكم بالماضي، أما كيف كانت محاولته للتحكم بالمستقبل، لهذا استخدم مزيج من تعديل الصور، وعبادة الشخصية التي لا يشابهها في عصرنا الحالي إلا ما حدث ويحدث في كوريا الشمالية مع (كيم إل سونج) وابنه (كيم جونغ إل) وربما الرئيس الجديد (كيم جونغ أون)، حيث يتحول ستالين إلى محور لكل شيء ليس في الاتحاد السوفييتي وإنما في العالم أيضاً، ولهذا يتم العودة إلى الماضي والتاريخ لتعديله، لإعطاء ستالين دوراً أكبر في الثورة الروسية، وإخفاء وإلغاء أي دور لمعارضيه وضحاياه، فلذا تم تعديل كل الصور التي تظهر الرفاق من تروتسكي، لكامينيف، وزينوفيف، وجعلت الصور كلها مركزة حول ستالين وسلفه لينين فقط.

ولكن من السخرية أن الطاغية، وخاصة في العصر الحديث، لا يمكنه مهما فعل التحكم في الماضي، ولا في المستقبل، فالماضي يتصدى له المؤرخون، ليظهروا ما حاول الطاغية إخفائه، ومحاولة المؤرخ مونتيفيوري إحدى هذه المحاولات التي مرت بآلاف المخطوطات، وعشرات المذكرات، والصور، وتنقلت بين كل البلدان التي ضمت شيئاً من تاريخ ستالين وخفاياه، أما المستقبل فيكفينا ما حدث بعد وفاة ستالين، فقد قام خلفه خروشوف بتفكيك الستالينية، ووجه النقد لستالين وميراثه، وتلا ذلك هدم لأغلب النصب الستالينية، ودفن لجثته التي كانت قد حولت إلى مومياء كما حدث للينين ووضعت إلى جانبه لثماني سنوات.

ولكن لنعد إلى موضوع الكتاب (ستالين ما قبل الثورة)، يشير عنوان الكتاب إلى الأدوار المتعددة التي لعبها هذا الشاب، منذ ولادته في غوري إحدى مدن جورجيا التي كانت ضمن الإمبراطورية الروسية، لوالد سكير كان يشك أن ستالين ليس ابنه، وأن والدته جاءت به من عدة آباء محتملين، الاسم الذي حمله الوليد الذي ولد لبيساريون دجوغاشفيلي وكيتيفان جيلادزي في سنة 1878 م كان ايوسيب وهو فيما يبدو النطق الجورجي لاسم جوزيف، على أي حال وكالعادة في تلك البلاد، يتم تصغير الأسماء الطويلة المرهقة إلى لقب صغير، وكان لقب ايوسيب بيساريون دجوغاشفيلي هو (سوسو)، وهو لقب ناعم، يقطر حلاوة، ظل الرجل يحمله ويحمل أسماء أخرى سواه خلال فترة عمله متخفياً، حتى قبيل الثورة الروسية عندما صار جوزيف ستالين، وستالين كلمة روسية تعني الرجل الحديدي، وهي معبرة عنه بالفعل.

العنوان الجانبي الذي وضعه المؤلف هو كما قلت تجميع لأدوار ستالين، فستالين دخل في سلك الكنيسة في بداية حياته، قبل أن يتعرف على الماركسية، ويصبح عدواً للكنيسة وهي عداوة ستكلف الكنيسة الكثير عندما يصل ستالين إلى السلطة، حيث سيحاربها بكل قوته، مغلقاً وهادماً عشرات آلاف الكنائس، معدماً عشرات آلاف رجال الدين، وداعماً الإلحاد في الإتحاد السوفيتي بهدف بناء المجتمع الشيوعي النموذجي.

وستالين الماركسي سيصبح زعيماً لمن حوله من الشباب، داعماً للينين الذي كان منفياً حينها من روسيا، ولدعمه يقوم بتكوين عصابة للسطو على البنوك والقتل، وخطف الأثرياء للحصول على الفدية، متنقلاً ما بين غوري، وتيفليس وباكو وبطرسبرغ وأخيراً موسكو، منفياً لمرات عديدة إلى سيبيريا، ملاحقاً طيلة الوقت من الشرطة السرية للقيصر (الأوخرانا).

وخلال كل هذه السنوات تنقل ستالين بين النساء، ساحراً لهن، متزوجاً بالبعض، هاجراً البعض، ومنجباً أبناء من البعض الآخر، وبالإضافة إلى اللص وزير النساء، كان هناك سوسو الشاعر، وقد صدر المؤلف كل قسم من أقسام كتابه بأبيات كتبها ستالين الشاعر، وهي أبيات تتغنى بالطبيعة وجمالها، من يقرؤها لا يفهم كيف نتج عن كاتب هذه الأبيات، أسوأ طغاة التاريخ بلا منازع، حيث لا يفوقه أحد في عدد الضحايا على مر التاريخ، وتعداد من تسبب بقتلهم إما بشكل مباشر، أو من خلال سياساته مرهق بالفعل، ولكن الرقم لا يقل عن الثلاثة ملايين، ويصل عند البعض إلى الستين مليوناً.

الكتاب مفيد لم يرغب في التعرف على شخصية ستالين، ولكن القراءة تعتبر ناقصة، حتى نقرأ الجزء الثاني (ستالين: بلاط القيصر الأحمر) والذي لم يترجم بعد، ولعل شركة المطبوعات للتوزيع والنشر تكمل ما قامت به وتترجمه، وهو بالتأكيد أكثر أهمية من الجزء الأول.

[M.H Ansari · Rating 5 out of 5]

بعد از کلی وقفه تونستم این کتاب رو تموم کنم 😃

روایتی کامل از شکل گیری استالین در دوران جوانی.
نویسنده کوچکترین نکته ای رو جا ننداخته😊

[Maćkowy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jak Soso został Stalinem

Spotkałem się z całkiem licznymi opiniami, że Simon Sebag Montefiore to najlepszy pisarz wśród historyków, i jakkolwiek ciężko się do tego stwierdzenia odnieść po przeczytaniu zaledwie jednej książki Anglika, to z pewnością ukrywa się w nim ziarno prawdy. W młodych latach despoty bowiem, Montefiore świetnie balansuje pomiędzy życiem politycznym, a prywatnym Josifa Dżugaszwilego. Przyglądamy się więc młodości Stalina od jego dzieciństwa w Gori, przez seminarium duchowne, pierwsze miłości, pierwsze akty przemocy, których był inspiratorem, po rewolucję październikową. Spod pióra Montefiorego wyłania się obraz człowieka o wielu obliczach: ujmującego towarzysza i podrywacza, bezwzględnego manipulatora nie liczącego się z nikim i niczym zawodowego rewolucjonisty, który splotem przedziwnych, wręcz niemożliwych na pierwszy rzut oka okoliczności staje na czele Sowietów.

Chylę czoła przed ogromem pracy jaką wykonał autor zbierając materiały do tej książki. Montefiore mozolnie przedziera się przez źródła pisane, których nie udało się zniszczyć generalissimusowi, gdy tworzył swoją oficjalną biografię, na potrzeby ludu kraju rad (głównie gruzińskie archiwa). Dociera do wspomnień przyjaciółek (niezwykle licznych przyjaciółek) młodego Josifa, jego rodziny, krewnych i przyjaciół z Gruzji, Azerbejdżanu, czy z licznych zesłań w głąb carskiej Rosji, dociera nawet do ostatnich żyjących świadków, znających go osobiście, których ominęły czystki lat trzydziestych. Przy czym pióro Montefiore ma niezwykle lekkie i przyjazne czytelnikowi, przez co lektura Młodych lat jest niezwykle wciągająca.

Oprócz losów samego Stalina, w książce dostajemy również arcyciekawą panoramę Carskiej Rosji przełomu XIX i XX wieku, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem południowego Kaukazu. Autor z reporterskim zacięciem oprowadza nas po brudnych uliczkach Gori, Tyflisu, czy Baku, pokazując miejsca, gdzie w praktyce rodziła się rewolucja komunistyczna - jak seminaria, rafinerie i pałace Rothschildów - gdzie wielkie pieniądze i dostatek spotykają skrajną biedę, a władza coraz słabszej carskiej monarchii powoli chyli się ku upadkowi i wreszcie trafiamy do Petersburga w przededniu rewolucji, gdzie szybko okazuje się, że władza właściwie leży w pałacu cara i czeka na chętnego , który po nią sięgnie i tylko kosmicznym pechem było to, że tymi najbardziej zdeterminowanymi, brutalnymi i bezwzględnymi okazali się bolszewicy, na zawsze tym samym zmieniając losy świata.

Nie wiem zatem, czy Simon Sebag Montefiore jest najlepszym pisarzem wśród historyków, za to wiem na pewno, że pisze świetnie, przystępnie i rzetelnie. Czekam zatem na wznowienie Dworu Czerwonego Cara (zapowiedziane na wrzesień 2021) i Jerozolimy.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Aaron Million · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chronologically, this is a prequel to Simon Sebag Montefiore's work on Stalin after he became dictator of the USSR in the late 1920s. However, this book, which covers Stalin's birth, childhood, and ruthless rise to power, was written after his Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar which I read several years ago. Thus, there are constant footnotes referencing the earlier work, usually in relation to the Great Terror that Stalin unleashed on the Russian and Georgian people in the 1930s. Consequently, throughout this book, hovers a thick black cloud as the reader knows about the bloodshed and mass murder that Stalin would unleash in later years.

Those continuous references to his earlier book started to get irritating to me as I kept encountering them on page after page. It struck me as repeated self-promotion, even though the references were pertinent to the subject matter in this volume. Montefiore also has the tendency to repeatedly say "published here for the first time" as he cites other documents and memoirs that he unearthed in archives. Again, while relevant, after a while it started to smack of self-promotion to me. Clearly Montefiore has devoted a great deal of time to delving into all facets of Stalin's life, and his prodigious research shows in the amount of information that he has provided both here and in the first volume. But I don't need to keep being reminded of it!

Parallel to that, the seemingly endless footnotes began to bog down the reading experience for me. On more pages than not, there are footnotes at the bottom of the page, in tiny print, and often these are extensive (though important) notes. I think that Montefiore would have been better served to have placed the information and anecdotes contained in some of these notes into the main text itself. In my view it would have made the book more digestible - I like notes such as these as they add flavor to the narrative, I just would have preferred them to have been used a bit more sparingly. The footnotes are of high quality; there were just too many of them for me. These are not to be confused with the endnotes, of which there are also plenty.

As for Stalin himself, Montefiore does a good job in explaining how his childhood damaged him, while making no excuses for his violent, paranoid behavior. Stalin's father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother. Stalin's mother, Keke, was smothering but loving, and did many favors for Stalin even after he was no longer a boy. Nonetheless, Stalin became distant from her as an adult. At least he did not purge her like he did so many of his comrades over the years.

Stalin grew up in Georgia, a violent state within the Russian Empire. Montefiore shows just how violent Stalin's early world was: fistfights in the streets, robberies, looting, rampant sexual escapades, most people with little money, food at times scarce. But, as Montefiore makes clear, many children grew up in this rough, unrelenting environment without becoming murderous dictators. Shockingly, as a a boy, Stalin was groomed to go into the priesthood, and even attended seminary school for several years before finally leaving. Given the atrocities later committed by him and for him, and the general Godless nature of Communism, it is certainly bizarre that Stalin was ever in such an institution to begin with.

But Stalin could not repress his violent, extreme nature and left the seminary to go into a life of crime and politics. He was a gangster, coordinating bank robberies and ordering hits on people. He was also highly sexually active as a young man (which does not make him different than many young men, except that Stalin had affairs with so many women that it is impossible to keep count). Stalin was married twice, and fathered several children - both legitimate and illegitimate. His first wife, Kato, died by natural causes although she was young, and Stalin neglected her. Perhaps he at least partially blamed himself for her early death, as he admitted to a friend shortly after her funeral that any love that he may have had for humanity extinguished with her death. Stalin then abandoned his son and moved to other places and other women. He married again, shortly, before the Revolution, to a teenager (Stalin by then was in his late 30s) whose family he lived with in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Nadya, his second wife, committed suicide in 1932, which is covered in Montefiore's other volume. In between, Stalin had numerous affairs across Russia. Ironically, while being a poor husband and an absent father, he was actually kind with other peoples' children, and would often play with them and bring them candy.

Stalin traveled - a lot. He never seemed to be in one place for long, even during some of his periods of exile at the hands of the Tsarist authorities. Stalin also traveled widely in Europe to meet with Vladimir Lenin in various cities as he became more enmeshed in Marxism and saw Lenin as the one to bring the Communist revolution to Russia. In one ironic twinge of history, Montefiore notes how Stalin was staying in Vienna, Austria at the same time that Adolf Hitler lived in that city. They even liked to take walks in the same nearby park, though they never knew each other. The two men who were responsible for destroying millions of lives in the 20th century may very well have unknowingly crossed paths on afternoon strolls in a Vienna park.

The numerous exiles that Stalin was sentenced to were not really prison like we would know it today. There were prisons, and Stalin did periodically spend time in them. However, the exiles were something different. These were sentences passed down by Tsarist authorities that banished Stalin to remote regions of Russia - namely somewhere in Siberia. Exiles would be sent to live in tiny, isolated villages thousands of miles from Moscow and St. Petersburg. They could - and Stalin sometimes did - escape. But the sheer remoteness and the extreme cold made escape difficult. Meanwhile, in their place of exile, the prisoner would be watched - with varying degrees of success - by the secret police. Sometimes this was more farce than anything as Stalin might wander off for days to fish and live in a small cabin. His movements, at least locally, were not restricted. He would read and write extensively (Stalin was a constant reader and well-educated; he was bilingual in Russian and Georgian, and also intensely studied both English and German throughout his life, not reaching fluency but making significant progress in understanding both languages). Indeed, Montefiore points out many times that, while there was this thuggish, brutal side to Stalin, there was also the quiet reader who immersed himself in all kinds of books, both fiction and nonfiction. Montefiore makes the case that this combination of Stalin having a penchant for violence along with being well-read and educated made him a very dangerous man.

Stalin increasingly grew close to Lenin and became one of the main writers of polemical tracts talking about a coming revolution. The massive bungling by Tsar Nicholas II, along with Russia's entry into WWI, helped to make this possible. Although, reading about how the Revolution occurred brings to mind an image of keystone cops. History easily could have went a different way for Russia had there not been massive incompetence by many, many people. At any rate, Stalin used Lenin to gain power for himself, with the book ending shortly after the Revolution in October 1917. Stalin does not become dictator of Russia for roughly another decade after this.

What is so scary about Stalin and his later reign of terror is not just that it happened, which is more than enough to be truly frightening. It is rather the randomness of it all. Stalin had many old comrades arrested and shot, sometimes based on no particular reason at all. Always somewhat paranoid, he really became so later on, seeing conspiracies where none existed. People who had helped him when he was young, took him in, gave him shelter, perhaps even saving his life at times, were mercilessly executed later on. Yet others were left untouched. Even a few people who had the nerve to disagree with the young Stalin were left alone. It truly made no sense. Then again, maybe it is best not to try to make sense of the machinations of a mass murderer.

This is a chilling, sober read. Knowing what is coming, it is difficult not to feel a sense of dread as you move along in Stalin's life. It is somewhat akin to reading about 1850s America - you know the Civil War is coming, and it's going to be really bad, yet you keep seeing all of these chances where it did not have to be that, yet it was. After reading both of Montefiore's books about Stalin, while I do not care too much personally for his writing style, I feel much more knowledgeable about a brutal man who fundamentally affected the world.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kävin taannoin katsomassa elokuvateatterissa mainion mustan komedian "Death of Stalin", ja totesin sen katsottuani, että voisi olla tarpeen hieman verestää tietouttani aiheesta. Niinpä lainasin meidän putiikistamme englantilaisen Simon Sebag Montefioren "Nuoren Stalinin" (WSOY, 2008), joka käsittelee toveri Josif Vissarionovitš Džugašvilin vaiheita ajalta ennen kuin hänestä tuli Stalin.

Stalinin elämästä on kirjoitettu paljon, mutta usein lähteet edustavat joko henkilöpalvontaa tai ovat hänen vihamiestensä kynästä lähtöisin. Montefiore on tehnyt tutkimustyönsä pieteetillä. Hän on lukenut useita erilaisia versioita aikalaismuistelmista (myöhempien painosten muokkaaminen oli yleistä Neuvostoliitossa), saanut haltuunsa ensi kertaa hyödynnettäviä lähteitä, sekä jututtanut aikalaisia kuten Stalinin ensimmäisen vaimon kuoleman aikaan läsnä ollutta sukulaisnaista.

Vuosiin 1878-1918 keskittyvä elämäkerta kuvaa ansiokkaasti tulevan valtionpäämiehen elämänvaiheita. Lapsuuteen löi leimansa niin perheen suutari-isä kuin syntymäkaupunki Gorikin; alkoholi ja väkivalta olivat usein läsnä. Lieneekö se omalta osaltaan muovannut Stalinista sen tunteettoman ja kovan miehen, jollainen hänestä myöhemmin tuli?

Vallankumoukselliseen liikkeeseen mukaan lähdettyään hän oli junailemassa monenlaisia väkivallantekoja, murhia, terrori-iskuja ja ryöstöjä. Välillä ne johtivat pidätyksiin ja karkoituksiin, mutta Stalin osasi aina pudota jaloilleen. Laajempaa huomiota bolsevikkien sisäpiirissä hän saavutti osaamalla olla tarpeen vaatiessa niin terävä-älyinen juonittelija kuin brutaaliin väkivaltaan turvautuva gangsteri, ja se nosti hänet lopulta aivan Leninin luotsaamaan sisäpiiriin saakka.

Elämäkerrassa merkittävää roolia näyttelevät myös lukuisat naissuhteet, jotka päättyivät usein enemmän tai vähemmän murheellisesti. Stalinille ei tuottanut ongelmia jättää naisia taakseen, ei vaikka nämä olisivat olleet hänen lapsensa äitejä. Sosialismi ja työ tulivat aina ensin ihmissuhteita.

Kiinnostavaa kyllä, Stalin harrasti innokkaasti kirjallisuutta ja kulttuuria. Hän luki Shakespearea, Maupassantia, Hugoa ja Goethea käännöksinä, ihaili Tsehovia ja Gogolia, osasi lausua Puskinin tuotantoa ulkomuistista ja kunnioitti taiteellisia lahjoja siinä mittakaavassa, että myöhemmin tapatti "mieluummin puolueen omia kynäniekkoja kuin loistavia runoilijoita." (s. 79). Erityisesti runous oli Stalinin sydäntä lähellä, ja julkaistiinpa hänen Soselo-lempinimellä kirjoitettuja runojaan gruusialaisissa antologioissa jo ennen Venäjän vallankumousta. Stalin oli myös erinomainen laulaja.

Vaikka "Nuori Stalin" onkin kiinnostava ja tarjoaa paljon kiinnostavia anekdootteja (Stalin tykkäsi toffesta, kun taas Lenin rakasti kalaa ja ranskalaisia), on se myös hetkittäin hieman raskassoutuinen. Lukija saa olla tarkkana etenkin monien gruusialaisten ristimä-, lisä- ja salanimien viidakossa, mutta onneksi mukana on henkilöluettelo, josta voi tarpeen vaatiessa luntata kuka kukin olikaan.

Kiinnostava elämäkertahan tämä kaiken kaikkiaan oli, ja seuraavaksi ajattelinkin jatkaa matkaani Punaisen tsaarin hoviin.

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

During high school I recall having a group conversation with fellow students about what we would do if power was thrust upon us by events. It was 1968 or '69 and we were, however naif, serious.

Young Stalin covers his life until the revolution in 1917, a topic substantially veiled until the breakup of the Soviet Union. The little I knew about Stalin before reading this book was from two, unsympathetic, sides: either that of Trotsky and his followers or that of social democrats whose affections were for the likes of Kerensky. This, a detailed and original account, provides a much fuller and much more impressive picture of the man.

Although, like Hitler, one of the bloodiest dictators of the 20th century, Stalin as portrayed here makes sense and comes across as understandable. His flaws are explained: his communism arising from a genuine sympathy and identification with the oppressed, his utopian apocalypticism arising from his religious training, his paranoia arising from misadventures with spies and provocateurs, his resorts to violence being his previous experiences as a revolutionary provincial brigand writ large upon his accession to power. Otherwise, and to my surprise, Stalin comes across as a polylingual, classically trained intellectual, reading Plato, in Greek, and becoming an atheist by reading Darwin--both in early adolescence. He was, throughout life, a studious reader and a capable writer. Sadly, and despite his conceits, he was never much of a military leader, nor, because of his paranoia, much of a good judge of others.

Just as Stalin comes across better herein than usually represented, so does Lenin come across worse, there being, in the author's opinion, not much difference between the two of them, Lenin being potentially just as bloodthirsty.

[Nigar Makhmud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bu kitab məndə dərin iz buraxdı. Mən həmişə tarix, xüsusilə də müharibə dövrü və Sovet epoxası ilə maraqlanmışam. Ola bilsin ki, bu maraq mənim ailəm və keçmişimlə bağlıdır. Montefiorenin Stalin haqqında yazdığı bioqrafiya mənim üçün təkcə məlumatlandırıcı oxu deyil, həm də mürəkkəb, ziddiyyətli və qorxulu bir dünyaya səyahət oldu.

Oxuduqca müxtəlif hisslər keçirdim—heyranlıqdan qorxuya qədər. Stalin təkcə diktator kimi deyil, çoxşaxəli bir şəxsiyyət kimi təsvir olunur: ağıllı, strateq, həm dostluq qura bilən, həm də xəyanət edə bilən, yaxınlarına qayğı göstərən, eyni zamanda amansız qəddarlıq nümayiş etdirən biri. O, xalqın azadlığı uğrunda mübarizə aparırdı, lakin sonradan milyonlarla insanın həyatına başa gələn bir tirana çevrildi. Bütün bunlar necə bir insanda cəmləşə bilər? Xarizmaya və yüksək intellektə sahib biri necə kütləvi repressiyalar həyata keçirə və öz xalqını məhv edə bilər? Bu suallar məni hələ uzun müddət düşündürəcək.

Montefiore həmin dövrün atmosferini ustalıqla çatdırır—qorxu və intriqalarla dolu qaranlıq bir mühit, eyni zamanda özünəməxsus bir əzəmət. Kitab Stalinin şəxsiyyəti və ətrafı haqqında bir çox yeni məqamları mənim üçün açdı. Özümü onunla üzbəüz təsəvvür etdim—əgər belə bir imkanım olsaydı, onunla danışmaq, suallar vermək və məntiqini anlamağa çalışmaq istərdim.
Bu bioqrafiya uzun müddət yaddaşımdan silinməyəcək.