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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Don't ask me why (I hope I'm not searching for role models!) but one of my summer reading projects focused on new histories of psychopathic leaders.
The opening up of the former Soviet archives has provided researchers with an astonishing array of materials - and Simon Montefiore (who also wrote Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar)is among the most adept of them.
This is a remarkable "up close an personal" view of Stalin's youth and rise to power. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Robert Caro's works on Lyndon Johnson: the intimate portrait of Stalin shows why he was beloved and admired as much as feared and abhored. To me this makes the book that much more credible - in contrast to, say, Mao: The Untold story, which so relentlessly tears Mao to shreds that, after reading it, it's hard to imagine how anyone could possibly have followed him.
The opening up of the former Soviet archives has provided researchers with an astonishing array of materials - and Simon Montefiore (who also wrote Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar)is among the most adept of them.
This is a remarkable "up close an personal" view of Stalin's youth and rise to power. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Robert Caro's works on Lyndon Johnson: the intimate portrait of Stalin shows why he was beloved and admired as much as feared and abhored. To me this makes the book that much more credible - in contrast to, say, Mao: The Untold story, which so relentlessly tears Mao to shreds that, after reading it, it's hard to imagine how anyone could possibly have followed him.
On the twenty-fifth day of February 1956, in the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev rose and delivered the address that has since come to be known as “The Secret Speech”, one that effectively demolished the myth and cult of personality that existed around and about Khrushchev’s predecessor and mentor. The speech sent shockwaves through the USSR, even with the minor bits and pieces of it that were initially released for public consumption.
Joseph Stalin had ruled the USSR for a quarter of a century, establishing himself as one of the most ruthless dictators of all time. Millions died as a result of his actions. As the HBO biopic on the man (starring Robert Duvall) rightly put it – fear had a name.
It’s easy to bill people like Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong as monsters. Somewhere, the use of the term itself allows mass murder to be explained in a split second. And yet there isn’t a more inaccurate term to describe them.
In 2003, just over a decade after the disintegration of the USSR, British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore penned a biography on Stalin, examining his time in power. Four years later, Montefiore returned to the life of the dictator, only this time to take a look at his life before he became a person of significance.
In my humble opinion (okay, scratch the humble; sounds pretentious), an examination of one’s early life leads to a greater understanding of a person. More so when you think about public figures. What was it that drove Stalin to unleash upon his own people, for whom the monarchy had been overthrown, a reign of terror that is possibly unmatched? What caused Hitler to loathe all those who didn’t qualify as Germanic enough in his book to the extent that he systematically eliminated them? It’s not as if these guys got up one fine morning and decide to commit mass murder.
Young Stalin takes us to the very beginning of what would be a phenomenon of a life, to Tbilisi in Georgia, where Ioseb Djugashvili was born into the house of an alcoholic shoemaker and his wife. Nicknamed Soso, the boy revealed, from an early age, the behaviour that would manifest itself on a much larger scale as he grew older. But then he also attended, for the longest time, a seminary. A priest is what his mother wanted him to be. A god is what he aspired to become.
Montefiore writes the book almost like an adventure novel, following Stalin’s adventures to the Caucuses, to Siberia, across the frontiers into Finland, Germany, England and Scandinavia, and ultimately to Moscow. In large part, the style makes the book enjoyable.
But Montefiore’s style becomes repetitive after a point, especially when citing sources. Those are the portions of the book which stick out like a sore thumb.
That Stalin’s life before his ascent to power was just as fascinating and insightful as his later years makes up for the book’s literary imitations as Montefiore takes us along to the badlands of Georgia where we witness Stalin in his gangster form, robbing banks and committing arson. Then there is his time in exile, spent in the harsh areas of Russia close to the North Pole. He also delves into the theory of Stalin having been an agent of the Okhrana – the Tsarist secret police, which coincidentally is a plot point in Alan Furst’s Dark Star, a book I’m currently reading.
Young Stalin is far from faultless, but is nevertheless something I would recommend for all those interested in history, in Russia, in Communism, in dictators, or well, just in the journey of one of the most powerful men to have ever lived.
Joseph Stalin had ruled the USSR for a quarter of a century, establishing himself as one of the most ruthless dictators of all time. Millions died as a result of his actions. As the HBO biopic on the man (starring Robert Duvall) rightly put it – fear had a name.
It’s easy to bill people like Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong as monsters. Somewhere, the use of the term itself allows mass murder to be explained in a split second. And yet there isn’t a more inaccurate term to describe them.
In 2003, just over a decade after the disintegration of the USSR, British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore penned a biography on Stalin, examining his time in power. Four years later, Montefiore returned to the life of the dictator, only this time to take a look at his life before he became a person of significance.
In my humble opinion (okay, scratch the humble; sounds pretentious), an examination of one’s early life leads to a greater understanding of a person. More so when you think about public figures. What was it that drove Stalin to unleash upon his own people, for whom the monarchy had been overthrown, a reign of terror that is possibly unmatched? What caused Hitler to loathe all those who didn’t qualify as Germanic enough in his book to the extent that he systematically eliminated them? It’s not as if these guys got up one fine morning and decide to commit mass murder.
Young Stalin takes us to the very beginning of what would be a phenomenon of a life, to Tbilisi in Georgia, where Ioseb Djugashvili was born into the house of an alcoholic shoemaker and his wife. Nicknamed Soso, the boy revealed, from an early age, the behaviour that would manifest itself on a much larger scale as he grew older. But then he also attended, for the longest time, a seminary. A priest is what his mother wanted him to be. A god is what he aspired to become.
Montefiore writes the book almost like an adventure novel, following Stalin’s adventures to the Caucuses, to Siberia, across the frontiers into Finland, Germany, England and Scandinavia, and ultimately to Moscow. In large part, the style makes the book enjoyable.
But Montefiore’s style becomes repetitive after a point, especially when citing sources. Those are the portions of the book which stick out like a sore thumb.
That Stalin’s life before his ascent to power was just as fascinating and insightful as his later years makes up for the book’s literary imitations as Montefiore takes us along to the badlands of Georgia where we witness Stalin in his gangster form, robbing banks and committing arson. Then there is his time in exile, spent in the harsh areas of Russia close to the North Pole. He also delves into the theory of Stalin having been an agent of the Okhrana – the Tsarist secret police, which coincidentally is a plot point in Alan Furst’s Dark Star, a book I’m currently reading.
Young Stalin is far from faultless, but is nevertheless something I would recommend for all those interested in history, in Russia, in Communism, in dictators, or well, just in the journey of one of the most powerful men to have ever lived.
This is one of the few biographies I've ever read, and it left me wanting more. Who knew Russian history could be so interesting? (many people, I know, but that particular truth was kept from me until I saw this book in the bargain bin at a book shop) What I liked the most about “Young Stalin” was the attempt to portray the man as a human being, with all the complexity that such a title entails. He had childhood friends, two wives he loved and neglected, a couple of flawed parents and a history of diseases that marked his face and left one of his arms useless. He rejected religion, but felt that Marxism came before anything else, even family. He also loved to read, wrote beautiful poems, and sang very well.
It’s easy to think of men like Stalin as one-dimensional monsters who dedicate every breath to the complete destruction of all living things, but the truth is that they are humans, just like us. It was very interesting to see how “Young Stalin” presented the good and the bad of Stalin’s character, and while it didn’t make me feel any sympathy for his cause, it gave me a new understanding of the Bolshevik revolution, and of the way that Stalin took advantage of the moment to rise to power, and built a totalitarian empire.
(Oh! and he was short too, about 5 ft, 6 in, or something O_O)
The one thing that slowed me down a bit was the difficulty trying to keep track of all the names (in all their variations) that are mentioned in the book. I had to get a notebook and write everything down, for future reference and to not get lost. But now that I’m in the middle of “Court of the Red Tsar” it’s coming in handy.
It’s easy to think of men like Stalin as one-dimensional monsters who dedicate every breath to the complete destruction of all living things, but the truth is that they are humans, just like us. It was very interesting to see how “Young Stalin” presented the good and the bad of Stalin’s character, and while it didn’t make me feel any sympathy for his cause, it gave me a new understanding of the Bolshevik revolution, and of the way that Stalin took advantage of the moment to rise to power, and built a totalitarian empire.
(Oh! and he was short too, about 5 ft, 6 in, or something O_O)
The one thing that slowed me down a bit was the difficulty trying to keep track of all the names (in all their variations) that are mentioned in the book. I had to get a notebook and write everything down, for future reference and to not get lost. But now that I’m in the middle of “Court of the Red Tsar” it’s coming in handy.