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Young Stalin | 
 enlarge | Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publisher: Phoenix
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.84
You Save: £5.15 (52%)
New (36) Used (5) from £4.84
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 3032
Media: Paperback
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0753823799
EAN: 9780753823798
ASIN: 0753823799
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A Warning From History September 27, 2008
John Winterson Richards
This is a well-researched, well-written, very depressing, and very important book. Those who were reluctant to admit the enormity of Stalin's crimes tried to comfort themselves, when it became impossible to deny them any longer, with the illusion that Stalin was somehow an aberration, an opportunistic bureaucrat who happened to be in the right place at the right time to steal the Marxist Revolution from Lenin and Trotsky. This book demonstrates how Stalin was in fact the model Leninist activist, who played important roles in the Bolshevik project from the earliest stages. As Lenin's principal "fundraiser", his techniques were those of the gangster: protection rackets, bank robbery, even piracy. The tragedy of Young Stalin is how easily a talented young man is corrupted by an evil ideology that draws him from romantic poet to revolutionary to terrorist to gangster: the boundaries are not as clear as some prefer to believe. Finally, the same characteristics he develops as a successful gangster turned him into a successful statesman - and one of the biggest mass murderers in history. Most depressing of all is learning that Young Stalin was not without his attractive side, that he was an energetic charmer with a surprising gift for poetry, and one wonders what he might have achieved if the negative side of his character had not been exploited by a corrupt dogma. As it was, he became a truly horrible man, and a timely warning to young people today of how the superficial attractions of violent politics exploit and destroy naive ideals.
Great Biography of a Surprising Sympathetic Character... September 24, 2008
Mr. N. T. Baxter (Cambridge, UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was really surprised by my reaction to this book. Like pretty much any sane person I consider Stalin to be one of the great tyrants of history. A brutal murderer; paranoid, violent and cruel. However, reading the story of his early years I often found myself rooting for him in his struggles with the Tsarist police, brutal teachers and violent father.
He comes across, at least to start with, as a romantic character. He was an excellent writer and poet, and was loyal to his friends and his women. He saw injustice and fought against it with all his strength. But over time his brutal upbringing and his resulting lack of trust in others began to take over. In the end the sympathetic traits are consumed by paranoia and hatred, and this book is a wonderful description of how this transformation happened.
A really exciting story and a brilliant case study in the formative events of a unique criminal psychopathology.
Amazing August 25, 2008
R. A. Hooker (London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great biography. It's fast moving, full of action and Montefiore really brings the young Stalin to life as you flick from page to spell-binding page.
You find yourself at turns liking the passion and charisma of the protagonist, and then repelled by his nascent cruelty and emotional coldness.
This book really explodes the myth that Stalin was simply a "grey blur" before he began to seize power in the 1920's. He was a competent, intelligent and experienced revolutionary, who was important to Lenin and popular with the party grass roots. His drive and personal magnetism are awe-inspiring, and Sebag Montefiore's book is an exercise in demonstrating how true greatness is born.
I can't wait to read the author's book on Stalin's later life, "The Court of the Red Tsar".
 Stalin planned 9/11 August 15, 2008
Red not Dead (Manchester UK)
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
It is now twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the triumphal proclamation of the victory of capitalism and the 'end of history'. Yet this victory has not made the world a better, safer place. Rather it unleashed imperialst aggression on massive scale, accompanied by ethnic hatred and economic chaos. Unable to justify the bankrupcy of their own system,the apologists for capitalism have continually been forced to exhume the corpse of communism,dress it up in a fresh shroud, and show it to the world.
Nationalist despots like Milosovic and Saddam were described as being essentially communist - being in possession of a strong, murderous state - whilst North Korea was linked in with the Axis of Evil. Even today, the propaganda offensive against China is in full swing, whilst the Russo - Georgian conflict is presented in Cold War terms.
Who would have believed the West would miss the Cold War so much ? It provides ideological certainty in these uncertain times. Our enemy today, of course, is Islam, and how convenient to show the public its true power and evil than by establishing a link with Stalin, officially the most evil man in history.
The author presents the October Revolution a terrorist conspiracy. Marxist theory is mentioned, but is not allowed to intrude on the real issues. The Bolshevik Party is seen to be continually engaged in bank robberies, murder of opponents, intiidation and gangsterism, its memebers a collection of psycopaths who loved their work. Virtually no attention is paid to the repressive nature of Tsarism which produced centralised party organisation, nor is there any attention paid to the political work of the revolutionay groups amongst the workers and peasants at this time. Only very briefly does Montefiore touch on the brutality of the Russian workers existence, when he describes the conditions in the Baku oilfields (p197).The tactics of the Bolsheviks of 'the gun and the ballot box' in our own age have been used by the IRA, Hamas and Hizbollah(p179).
Having established the terroristic methods of the Bolsheviks, Montefiore goes on to creaed a tenuous link to Islam. Marxism is presented as a secular religion. The Bolsheviks are described as Marxists 'of semi-Islamic fervour' (p230). Stalin himself, the product of an Orthodox seminary, is revealed as having links to 'a Muslim Bolshevik group', whatever that may mean.
This book is a combination of Cold War and anti-Islamic propaganda, reflecting the pressing needs of our rulers, and is significant for this fact rather than being important as an historical work in its own right. If you want a more reasoned discussion of Stalin, I suggest Isaac Deutschers 'Stalin'.
How could this man have become the hard hearted monster of the Soviet Republic? May 14, 2008
Sally Wilton (Bournemouth UK)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
A topic I would never have thought could be so very interesting. The early years of the black hearted Red Tsar and what made him become so dogmatic and ultimately wicked. A fascinating blockbuster of a story, with qualities that keep you reading to the end. Interspersed with photographs and even poems by 'Soso' the 'romantic'.
Joseph did not have much going for him in his early life with an alcoholic, shoe maker father and headstrong and angry mother and I admired his thirst for knowledge and ambition in his youth, always trying to gain an education where so little was available. He ruthlessly strived to achieve his aim to become the leader of the USSR and in my opinion regardless of his charming manner, good looks and high intelligence he seems to have had the symptoms a psychopath. His ability to encourage sympathy from people for himself at any opportunity and his cause whilst hiding a completely hard heart is evidence of that.
A great book for anyone interested in the former USSR and understanding the present situation and the Russian people.
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