Vital prequel to the internationally best-selling biography STALIN: COURT OF THE RED TSAR
Stalin remains, like Hitler, the personification of evil.
This enthralling biography reads like a thriller and reveals the extraordinary journey of the Georgian cobbler's son who became the Red Tsar.
Born into poverty, this charismatic but d
?this terrific and terrifying biography of the years to 1917.? - THE INDEPENDENT
It shares with its predecessor (STALIN THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR) the virtues of fine prose, empathy with a rich range of characters and narrative of great ability. - Ross Leckie, THE TIMES
brilliantly readable history of Stalin?..Sebag Montefiore's re-creation of the world in which his subject's picaresque career unfolded is wonderfully detailed and convincing, and the portrait he paints of an egotistical monster in the making is unforgettable. - Pick of the Week in THE SUNDAY TIMES
this lively and accomplished account of Stalin's "gangsterish", pre-revolutionary youth, which draws on material from newly opened archives. - THE GUARDIAN
bring[ing] to life the unnerving 'young man with the burning eyes' - THE OBSERVER
This colourful account?is a gripping read as well as faultlessly scholarly - THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
this zippy prequel - EVENING STANDARD
gripping account??. An excellent companion to Montefiore's previous bestseller - BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE
Simon Sebag Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of a number of prize-winning books that have been published in forty-eight languages. CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR won the BBA History Book of the Year Prize; YOUNG STALIN won the Costa Biography Award, the LA Times Book Prize for Biography and the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique; JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY won the JBC Book of the Year Prize and the Wenjin Book Prize in China; THE ROMANOVS: 1613-1918 won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Book Prize. He is the author of the Moscow Trilogy of novels: SASHENKA, RED SKY AT NOON and ONE NIGHT IN WINTER, which won the Political Fiction Book of the Year Award. He is also the author of WRITTEN IN HISTORY: LETTERS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and the forthcoming VOICES OF HISTORY: SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.