I'm probably in agreement with most in saying this is one of the most entertaining reads about such a dreadful subject as "Soso". As with Potemkin's biography, Mr. Montefiore's ability to unearth biographical details gives life to the characters. I'll mention just a few juicy anecdotes about the book (in no particular order): the author manages to interview an old man aged 109 at the time who 100 years earlier had seen Soso bereave his first bride, Kato; he reveals that the Okhrana was foresightfully worried that airplanes, back then, could be used for suicide attacks on the seat of government; he walks us through the various fathers Stalin could have had; and he takes us to Soso's last, longest and harshest Siberian exile beyond the arctic circle.

Honestly, if this guy was alive today, he'd have more air miles than the Dalai Lama.

First of all this is probably the best non-fiction book I've read in recent memory. Montefiore's portrait of a young criminal virtuoso measures up favourably to some of the best biographies ever written, works like Sylvia Nasar's 'A Beautiful Mind' and Martin Gilbert's 'Churchill', .

The style of writing is unique in that it is both direct and elegant, a combination of clipped factual biography and sensational prose that succeeds in turning a historical document into a novel that puts your modern day bestselling thriller to shame (I'm looking at you Da Vinci Code). Stalin's days growing up in a provincial Georgian town, from the traditional yearly town brawls, to being a choirboy in the church, to fomenting anarchy in the seminary after his discovery of Marxism (Stalin probably wouldn't have made a great priest anyway), the author's diligently researched work gives the reader an often hilarious portrait of a surprisingly likeable young Georgian who, with some luck and charisma, just happened to become one of the most callous and paranoid autocrats in the history of the Russian empire.

I thought it unfortunate that the author didn't really expand upon the particular brand of Marxism that Stalin espoused. Although to be fair the remark that Stalin could quote and paraphrase so effectively from Marx that he would manipulate anyone into seeing the merits of his own opinions is revealing. Like most fanatics, he expropriated the facts that suited him. In any case the book is about the Stalin, and not the revolution or Marxism.

Another difficulty that people might encounter is the deluge of Georgian and Russian names that flit in and out of Stalin's life. If you thought James Dean was popular, wait until you see this Stalin guy. Spandarian, Shaumian, Egnatashvili, Davrichewy, Alliluyeva, Svanidze, Mukhtarov, Sverdlov, Lunarcharsky, Dybenko, Kamenev...keeping track of everyone is like being Kirstie Alley's nutritionist, the shear quantitiy and variety is overwhelming. Sometimes people show up just so they can get killed a few pages later, but I suppose we can blame Stalin for that and not Sebag-Montefiore. In any case the author is adept at separating the important figures from more minor actors, without wasting much space on repetition or lengthy digressions.

A few minor editing mistakes and the aforementioned quibbles however, do not detract from the fact that this is a first rate work of scholarship and writing. Easy five stars.

Even with today's conveniences of travel, it would take an extraordinary person simply to get around all the transit points and destinations in Stalin's young life. And as to personal networking skills, he seemed both to command the underground while using little effort to find support casually walking on the street.

The writing and historical story-telling by the author were outstanding. While having read and viewed quite a bit on this epoch in history, I never previously got the significance of Stalin throughout the entire revolutionary ordeal. Presently, with this book's influence, I pivot from from viewing him as a crude power grabber in the later phases as we are inclined to think based on past western accounts. There was a great deal more depth to the character and story, as this historian reveals.

This is a monumental contribution to straightening out modern history. It clarifies a great deal.

It is well known that Trotsky for a long time fatally underestimated Stalin, whom he thought colourless and plodding. The flamboyant Trotsky was for years more famous than the laconic provincial from Georgia, but if he had familiarized himself with Stalin's early career, he would have realized, as Lenin did, that Stalin was ruthless and efficient. This book documents Stalin's early career in great detail. It shows the charisma, leadership qualities, toughness and ambition that he had displayed from his schooldays onwards; how he was hardened by the brutality of his drunken father and by the violent nature of Georgian society; what a genius he had for organizing strikes, the burning of oil refineries, murderous bank raids and piracy, protection rackets and kidnappings, while himself not taking a direct part. Sebag Montefiore says that Stalin's involvement in some of these crimes has never been conclusively proved; but he has little doubt that they all bore his stamp. Stalin frequently used disguises and aliases, and several times escaped from prison or from exile.

The frequent inefficiencies of the Okhrana and the Tsarist police emerge strongly in this account; but it was not always inefficiency: Stalin had many informers inside the security forces, just as they had many informers inside all revolutionary parties - so much so that some have suspected Stalin himself of at times having been a Tsarist agent, which Sebag Montefiore does not believe. But Stalin did have many people murdered whom he suspected of being agents for the security forces, sometimes perhaps because real agents planted such suspicions in his mind. The worst traitor was Roman Malinovsky, a man whom Stalin trusted implicitly, but who was instrumental in getting him sent to the worst of his exiles in 1913 and then betrayed Stalin's attempts to escape from there also. Malinovsky's treachery was exposed in 1914. Sebag Montefiore says that Stalin's future suspicions of even his closest comrades was rooted in this experience.

The book is a prequel of the author's The Court of the Red Tsar, and, as in that book, Sebag Montefiore pays little attention to ideology. He consistently calls Stalin's followers gangsters, and some of them indeed were no more than that: Stalin certainly made use of the criminal underworld. But he himself and many of his followers (women as well as men) were more than simply gangsters. Of course they believed - as do the followers of Bin Laden today - that the ends justify the most brutal and ruthless means; but the ends were ideological. Stalin fought for Bolshevism when among the Georgian (Marxist) Social Democrats, the Mensheviks were in a majority; he was prepared to challenge (successfully) even his hero Lenin when Lenin thought the Bolsheviks should take part in the elections after the 1905 Revolution. He was not interested in personal enrichment, and the bulk of the proceeds of the bank-raids he organized went to Lenin or to the Bolshevik cause in the Caucasus, keeping back only a little to celebrate each successful heist in a wild party.

We see Stalin becoming the leading Bolshevik inside Russia while Lenin was abroad: he joined the Bolshevik Central Committee in 1912 with special responsibility for Bolshevik policy on nationalities; he edited Pravda (where he sometimes took a different line from Lenin's and indeed turned down forty-seven of articles Lenin sent in!) But then he was sent into exile, and the description of his four years (1913 to 1917) near the Arctic Circle is one of the most graphic parts of the book. In October 1916, with the war going badly, the exiles were conscripted. Before they had left Siberia, the Tsar had fallen, and the Kerensky's government ordered their release, March 1917, and Stalin returned to Petrograd.

Claiming seniority, he resumed the editorship of Pravda and was the most dominant Bolshevik until Lenin arrived in Russia three weeks later; then he aligned himself with Lenin's determination to fight the Provisional Government. In July, afer a failed Bolshevik uprising, Kerensky's government struck at the Bolsheviks. Trotsky, Kamenev and other leaders were imprisoned; Lenin and Zinoviev went into hiding. Stalin, for some reason left at liberty, was once again briefly in charge. In September the imprisoned leaders were released when Kerensky needed their help against General Kornilov; and then began the struggle inside the Bolshevik Party between Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin on the one hand who now wanted an immediate uprising, and `the Waverers', Kamenev and Zinoviev on the other who thought it too dangerous. But Lenin had his way, and the Bolsheviks seized power. Sebag Montefiore enjoys himself describing some of the farcical elements of the take-over: `the reality of October was more farce than glory. Tragically, the real Revolution, pitiless and bloody, started the moment this comedy ended.'

One of the unexpected consequences of the Soviet Union collapse is the exposure of a reality hidden away in dusty files and failing memories. Simon Senag Montefiore with "The Court of the Red Tsar" and now "Young Stalin", the Winner of the 2007 Costa Biography Award, reveals the messy realities behind the manipulated legends. Read books in the past, and the "truth" was the betrayal of great Trotsky and Lenin vision of Socialist Russia by the grey mediocrity of a bureaucratic opportunist. As ever was life so simple. In reality, his shadowy Party work was, only known to a few and suppressed after the Revolution to ensure his national role in the Party. Not known by him, Trotsky who wrote well, created in defeat the picture of Stalin we know. Stalin was in fact a dangerous but effective mixture of classically trained intellectual, poet, singer, effective organiser, street gangster and conspirator per excellence, who was cruel, ruthless, brave, cold, paranoid, witty, calculating. You could enjoy his company but be swimming with the fishes as he wept with your relatives in the morning.

Simon Senag Montefiore uses unpublished, censored 20's and 30's memoires and interviews with surviving eyewitnesses to make clear where the man and the cut of the age clash to create Stalin and the USSR. Soso, short for Joseph, suffered an appalling childhood of a drunkard father and a domineering, suffocating mother. Yet his mother's various lovers protected him so he gained a middle class intellectual education. He was born and reared in a long vanished Georgian culture where Russians, Persians, semi pagan Mountain tribes, Jews fought, loved and traded. A popular annual festival was the town brawl when any active man from three fought each other to a standstill. It was also a world in which in Georgia, that had held the Ottoman Empire at bay for centuries, fall in to deeply resentful annexation by the Russian Empire a generation earlier. To grasp his early days think of Italians crossed with Spanish gypsies living to a code of honour and revenge that would make the Mafia a bunch of boy scouts.

He rose up the Party by being the man who could rob and steal to bankroll Lenin's political ambitions as well as organise mass strikes. More importantly, he unlike Trotsky and Lenin was active in Russia with the regular members of the party. As we say now, he could talk the talk and walk the walk. Trotsky was clearly important in the 1917 revolution and in the later civil war but was vain and a snob, a great orator but mistrusted by many activists because of that. Stalin was not a showy speaker but knew how to play the simple plain worker to these crowds. This created adoring followers (many of which he killed in the 30's) who enabled him to take control of the party when being in the Government had more status.

The book tackles the view that Stalin was a double agent traitor. He was clearly a double agent working on Party orders but examples given of his double-dealing fall flat. In reality, riddled with spies and traitor, the Party was monitored daily by the Tsar's Secret Police. So Stalin betrayed by a double agent Party cadre spent 4 years in bitter Siberian exile. The traitor when exposed in 1918 shook the party to the core as it was akin to discovering that J.F.K (for our American cousins) or Atlee had been a communist double agent. And, if he could be a traitor so could anyone so paving the way to the show trials of the 30's.

I must confess I am a sucker for anything about the rise and fall of the Communist Party as a long term Marxist. My interest came from my involvement in the revolutionary Left in the 70s and 80's where the Trotsky-Stalin battles were still alive and kicking. Fear not American reader, I would clearly have been shot in the first days as one of those Quaker-Papist socialists who babble about the sanctity of human life. One of the few things that Trotsky and Stalin agreed on!. Hence, I have read in and around the ideas and history of this period for many years from the actions of the mule-headed Court, the oppressed peasantry and workers and the struggle of the intellectuals over the 19th century to make the political ideas of the West live in Russia. But the book is well researched and clearly written. It would appeal to anyone trying to understand the period or wanting an insight into a complex man you would be foolish to slight in any way. Yet you can see it was his iron will that made the USSR and caused it eventual failure.

Same author as "Court of the Red Czar", found amazing unpublished memoirs in Georgian archives. Insights into the real person and the forces that shaped him. Well written, entertaining and well sources. Also some great photos that I don't think have been published before. I have 7-8 stalin biographies and this is a great addition to the collection on one of history's most interesting specimens.

A fascinating portrait of Stalin as a young man. Up till now, it has been difficult to assess the life of the Soviet dictator before 1917. The hagiography of Soviet times absurdly exalted him; Trotsky, on the other hand, belittled his role in Russia's revolutionary movement. Western historians tended to agree with Trostky, despite his obvious grudges against the man who ultimately ordered him killed. During Soviet times, sources seemed inaccessible to western historians, but British historian Montefiore had been surprisingly successful in finding a lot of material about Stalin's early life, including unpublished (or unknown in the west) autobiographies of some of Stalin's partners in crime. Montefiore's key insight is that to understand Stalinist Russia you have to imagine a country led by a gangster. Stalin cut his teeth as the leader of the Bolshevik underground in the Caucasus, where his gang engaged in bank robberies, extortions and bombings (including one in Tbilissi in 1907 that left dozens of bystanders dead). Once in power, he behaved like a gangster, exterminating his opponents and becoming paranoid about possible informers (spies) in his organization (the Okhrana, Czarist Russia's secret police had been highly successful in infiltrating Russian revolutionaries).
Trotsky held that Stalin was virtually unknown among Bolsheviks before 1917, but far from that, from 1905 on, he was their point man in the Caucasus (though, because he led a clandestine life, few knew him by his real name, addressing him instead through a variety of alias, like Soso and Koba). Lenin had a high opinion of Stalin, feeling his ruthlessness was just what the Bolsheviks needed.
Stalin was certainly ruthless, but he was no brute, as Trotsky held. The seminary where he studied (and where he got excellent grades) was one of Georgia's premiere educational institutions. And he was a voracious reader for most of his life. Trotsky's spite was at being beaten in the power game by someone he considered to be less intelligent than himself, but Trotsky's view of Stalin as an ignorant and mediocre apparatchik is hard to held.
Stalin was also very much a man of Georgia. Up to the time he was about 35, he spend almost his whole life in his native country, absorbing its Mediterranean clannish and violent culture.
Many juicy stories are included in the book. Stalin spent most of World War I in internal exile in the remote Siberian north. He lived in a small settlement by the Yenisey river, surrounded by Samoyedic tribes with whom he liked to hunt in the area's pristine forests. There, he also fathered a boy with a 13 year old girl living in the area. When Czar Nicholas II abdicated in early 1917, Stalin was still in Siberia (Lenin and Trotsky were outside Russia). The life of exiles in Siberia during the Czar's regime, by the way, was surprisingly mild. Many were able to escape, including Stalin, several times.
Though the book stops at 1917, it leaves little doubt as who would come on top on the power struggle after Lenin's death. Stalin was far better at cultivating people than the arrogant Trotsky, even if he would later turn on them and send them to the firing squad.

In reading this book, one learns some interesting facts about Stalin's early years. The author has meticulously compiled and written this book.

However, this book is no great historical work. The author lacks the finesse, insight and analytical abilities of a talented historian.

I also think that he has gone overboard (like may before him) in playing up the renegade, hooligan side of Bolshevism. Yes, thy perpetrated bank robberies after the Revolution of 1905. But the Bolshevik party was also a party of intellectuals, politicians, and Marxists dedicated toward building a sound future. Truely they did not refrain from violence or extreme views; but thye were more than just thugs and bank-robbers as the implicit message of this book has implied.

Many times throughout the book, the author attempts to tarnish the image of Lenin with that of gangster hooliganism. The objectivity and insight of an historian is utterly absent from this book.

For others who are students of history, I recommend this book to gain some perspective and insight into Stalin's childhood. But for profound historical analysis, one must go elsewhere.

A fascinating view of the child, adolescent, and young man who would become master of the largest and most brutal police state ever. Simon Montefiore presents Stalin as a youth, from street urchin to seminary student, political gangster, and exile. Story of a magnetic personality who jumped from love affair to affair with no thought of responsibility for resulting children. Montefiore describes Stalin's interactions with all the major historical players, Lenin, Trotsky, Molotov, Dzerzhinsky, and others, but the emphasis is biographical rather than political history.

The extensive source notes are indicative of the exhaustive effort put into creating this very readable reconstruction of Stalin's young life

What kind of youth grows up to be history's worst mass murderer of his own people? Was he the kind of kid who tortured small animals or someone about whom others would express disbelief in how he turned out? "Ah, Josef was such a nice boy." That question is only one of the many Montefiore explores in his exceptional biography of Stalin from birth through the October revolution. He does so with psychological and character observations, as they are inescapable, but he mostly lets actions speak for themselves.

The author clearly has done extensive research, making repeated references to documents long suppressed or otherwise not available in complete form. Thus, the opportunity was there for new material and a new look in an under-explored topic. A reader such as I will have to trust Montefiore that his facts are mostly correct and that key information that might undermine his theses has not been excluded. The occasions where the author admits to speculation and points out incomplete information, such as an inconclusive assessment of whether Stalin was a double agent, aided the sense of credibility. Scholars and readers with more personal involvement in Stalin's terror can fight over exactly what is fictional or wrong.

The young Stalin was in fact trouble from nearly the start, a creature of his culture, his drunken father, an obsessive mother who beat him and quirks of fate. Obviously, no matter how long the list might be, you cannot fully explain the result, and Montefiore does not try to solve the impossible. Instead, one of the author's main points is that the crude, ascetic peasant was constantly underestimated by others regarding intelligence, cunning, talent for leadership of common men, and breadth in his knowledge gleaned from constant reading, something Trotsky and so many others eventually learned at their peril. Stalin as a talented poet and singer is undeniable, yet still triggers some feeling of disbelief. Perhaps we like our mass murdering dictators completely evil.

As Montefiore said after one key event, "Stalin now proved himself, not only as a gifted politician but also as a ruthless man of action, to the one patron who really counted. Lenin decided that Stalin was 'exactly the kind of person I need.'" The author demonstrates how Stalin's eventual ascension was far from certain, and how could it have been in such an environment, but that Lenin and Stalin were more of the same mind than often claimed. When Lenin and the Bolsheviks chose the brutal path over a more accommodating rule, the opportunity was created for the ruthless, gangster prince of darkness to have his chance.

Had the Tsar's forces had anywhere near the brutality of Stalin, the world would have been spared his rule. Forget the repeated exiles that helped shape his character and plans, leaving women and ignored, illegitimate children in his wake. Just shoot him. As Montefiore quoted Lenin, "How can you have a revolution without shooting people?"

Stalin also escaped obscurity and death repeatedly, sometimes through luck and sometimes through timely support at a critical moment. A particularly important early example was Stalin's unlikely acceptance into the seminary thanks to his mother. Without that, Josef Djugashvilis may have become Soso the successful local gangster instead of Stalin. Intervention and luck at key moments are staples of any notable life. In his case we can only wish for what might have been.

The extensive footnotes blended throughout the text and a solid epilogue were very helpful, to help separate the lucky survivors from the many who were liquidated.

Sometimes Montefiore writes with more of a novelist's approach (e.g., starting off the bio with the bank heist in Tiflis) and sometimes with dry chronological detail. Overall, "Young Stalin" moves briskly for a biography and is highly entertaining. Don't be surprised if you head off for additional research or another book upon completion.

Simon Sebag Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsarwas breathtaking, the best depiction to date of Stalin as the modern Tsar.

Now, in "Young Stalin", Montefiore illuminates how a peasant's son, born into a backwards province of Imperial Russia grew into one of the world's three great mass murderers.

Montefiore's scholarship is stunning. He has plumbed archives like no biographer of Stalin before him. And Montefiore has a knack for writing. Neither too academic, nor too gossippy or informal.

His description of the primitive Georgia Stalin was born and raised in brings to life an area that makes the old American West seem like a church picnic. It was a brutal way of life that formed the young Stalin.

Montefiore shows how Stalin became involved with the revolutionary fervor of the age, leading to his increasing involvement with the criminal activity so necessary to finance revolution, such as the great Tiflis bank robbery of 1907. More than 40 people were murdered in the robbery engineered by Stalin.

His involvement with Lenin is fully described.

For those who know the name at all, Stalin is remembered as a tyrant, a dictator, a mass murderer, But the young Stalin Montefiore describes is a handsome young man, very appealing to women, intelligent, crafty, politically adept and quick to learn the arts of revolution, oppression and murder.

One of the interesting tidbits is a list of Stalin's names, nicknames, bylines and aliases: 40 of them, which provides insight into how a wanted revolutionary survived in Tsarist Russia.

The book follows Stalin into the 1920s, when he is in his 40s and growing into the power that will ultimately make him the new Tsar of All the Russias.

It is a fascinating look at a man who probably would have succeeded in the United States had his family been among the millions who emigrated here. In the US, Stalin might have become a cynical left-winger and politically powerful (He was a contemporary of Franklin D. Roosevelt.) In Tsarist Russia, he developed into a monster who oppressed, imprisoned, enslaved all who fell under his sway and murdered tens of millions.

Simon Sebag Montefiore has done impressively well and anyone with an interest in 20th Century history owes it to themselves to read both his histories of Stalin.

Jerry

Simon Sebag Montefiore pored over archival sources and interviews to produce a portrait of a passionate, brutal gangster and Marxist fanatic. Montefiore does an incredible job of contrasting the young Stalin with his upper middle class revolutionary peers, accurately labeling young Stalin as a man of action and his peers as arrogant 'tea drinkers.' He also speculates that the Soviet Union might have turned out much differently if one of the 'tea drinkers' became the leader of the Soviet Union instead of Stalin.

This book does so many things right, it is hard to know where to start. For one, Montefiore points out that many historians have followed Leon Trotsky's description of events, and believed the fiction that before the Revolution, Stalin was a non-entity. The book then goes on to prove, in detail, that Stalin held commanding roles as a Bolshevik foot-soldier, orator, writer and Party Organizer for almost two decades before the Revolution.

Montefiore makes another important argument that Stalin's experience as a Revolutionary, and engagement in 'konspiratsia' with the Tsarist Okhrana created the mindset that led to the Great Terror. The argument makes sense and is well-supported by the evidence: the Tsarist infiltration of the Bolsheviks was so thorough, most of the leading members were imprisoned or exiled just before the Revolution. Stalin and his comrades spent a great deal of time looking for traitors, often condemning innocent people while the real traitors got away. It is easy to see how this mentality fueled the Great Terror, which engulfed millions of souls because of one man's paranoia.

In short, Montefiore does an outstanding job of describing Stalin's formative years as a revolutionary, and tying it to future events of the bloody dictator's life. He does a great job demonstrating causal relationships. This book is must reading for anyone trying to come to grips with Stalinism.

Attention all historians! This is the way that history should be written. Simon Sebag Montefiore's magnificent chronicle of Stalin's early years is easily one of the most entertaining, and knowledgeable historical biographies that I have ever read. Montefiore has proven to be both an assiduous researcher, as well as a masterful storyteller. Some reviewers have accused Montefiore of being too sensationalistic and novelistic. I call it vivid, descriptive storytelling of the highest caliber. I could actually visualize the scenes in my head as he was describing them. Remember that excruciatingly leaden college professor whose lectures you dreaded sitting through, that tiresome mathematician in historian's clothing? That is the type who will surely be annoyed by this book, although anyone with half a pulse will find it to be a superlative exercise in biographic history. For Pete's sake, the reason I like history is because it is the study of animate objects; people, places, events, etc. It is adventurous, and when done rightly, like Montefiore here, it can truly inspire. Witness the style:

"So this is not just a biography, but the chronicle of their milieu, a pre-history of the USSR itself, a study of the subterranean worm and the silent chrysalis before it hatched the steel winged butterfly."

Born in 1879 as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, the man who would become known as Stalin, was known throughout his childhood and youth as Soso. Young Soso was born and raised in the industrial Georgian town of Gori, in the far reaches of the Russian Empire. This seething Caucasian town was a turbulent mix of piety, honor and drunken unruliness. "Gori was one of the last towns to practice the picturesque and savage custom of free for all town brawls with special rules, but no holds barred violence. Boozing, praying and fighting were all interconnected, with drunken Priests acting as referees." Soso's father was a drunken cobbler who viciously abused him. His mother was compassionate, yet maybe too much so, as she had a reputation for being promiscuous. Stalin was certainly aware, writes Montefiore, that his biological father might have been one of three neighborhood men that were close to the family. The Georgia of Stalin's youth was also steeped in a culture of rebellion and banditry. Young Soso grew up hearing stories of heroic Georgians who fought off the imperialist forces of Russia, and his original revolutionary cohorts were a turbulent admixture of dedicated Marxists and bloodthirsty criminals. Here is another quote that highlights both the ambiance of Stalin's birthplace, as well as Montefiore's writing style:

"Georgians and other Caucasian men in traditional chokha, their skirted long coats lined down the chest with bullet pouches, swaggered down the streets singing loudly. Georgian women in black headscarves and the wives of Russian officers in European fashions, promenaded through the gates of the Pushkin Gardens, buying ices and sherbet alongside Persians and Armenians, Chechens, Abkhaz and mountain Jews in a fancy dressed jamboree of hats and costumes.... ....This un-Slavic, un-Russian and ferociously Caucasian kaleidoscope of east and west was the world that nurtured Stalin."

Soso was somewhat of a paradox from early on. He was at once the brightest, most hard-working student, as well as the most mischievous and violent. He was small but tough, constantly getting into fights and assorted thuggery, but at the same time he was a gifted poet, and star choirboy. "Attractive to women, often singing Georgian melodies and declaiming poetry, he was charismatic and humorous, yet profoundly morose. An odd Georgian with a Northern coldness." He was a dashingly handsome and prolific lover, a great organizer, and a maliciously effective political gangster. Soso was, in fact, a typical Georgian in many ways, a people of unfailing hospitality and blood feuds. From Gori, he moved to Tiflis (Tblisi) where he entered a seminary to become a Priest. Ironically, it was here where he first encountered Marxism. After several years, Soso quit the seminary and dedicated his life to being a Marxist revolutionary. It was in Tiflis where he began his political career, which included activities such as brazen bank robberies and extortions. He was constantly on the move, residing at one time or another in Batumi, Baku, Vienna, London, and twice exiled to Siberia, the second time for several years, which had a lasting effect on him. We also learn about his relations with Lenin, Trotsky, and the rest as Montefiore takes us right up until 1917. Montefiore also notes that Stalin's turbulent underground life helped mold his extreme notions of loyalty and betrayal.

It is commonly thought that Stalin was not particularly intelligent, but according to Montefiore, that is not true. He lacked a formal education, yet he was a voracious autodidact with a mind like a steel trap. Occasionally mentioned is what type of books Stalin was reading at certain times, and how it affected him. Montefiore also notes that much of the prevailing opinion about Stalin, his intelligence, and his involvement in the Revolution has been taken from Trotsky, who Montefiore says is not entirely reliable. I could go on and on about this terrific book, but I suspect that you get the idea. `Young Stalin' is just an all around enthralling read. Five stars.

This biography is clearly the result of much investigation and research and for this it must be complimented. It is unfortunate, however, that such a compelling story has not been more compellingly told. Sebag Montefiore's style is close to painful and his habit of footnoting completely irrelevant information is infuriating.

Nevertheless, for the richness of its detail alone, I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Soviet history.

The cover photo by itself will change your idea of Stalin: Poet, choirboy and paranoiac. Offhandedly enjoyed the intimacy of hundreds of adoring women.Had to run the show from age 6 and always did.A must read!

Stalin was one of the great butchers of the twentieth century. In a race to the bottom, Stalin would be vying with Hitler and Mao. Indeed, Stalin was little more than a common criminal who, by sheer dint of will, engineered himself to the leadership of a large country.

Simon Sebag Montefiore has done some excellent work in unearthing the real background to Stalin from the time of his birth until the Russian Revolution in 1917. We are given the picture of a neglected child who trained to be a priest before going off to that other great delusion, Marxism. He brooked no challengers and was absolutely egomaniacal.

Was Stalin any worse than Lenin? Possibly so. He certainly caused more deaths. But this may be due to his having more time. Lenin was struck down in his fifties and held power for only a few short years. Stalin, by contrast, had decades to put his obsessions to work. His legacy is one of misery on a monumental scale. The final insult to his legacy though was the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

More needs to be known of Stalin. Too much secrecy has surrounded his life. Simon Sebag Montefiore has created a masterful piece of scholarship to fill in many gaps in the timeline. His youth is unveiled in great detail. The character of the man is thrown into the light of examination.

For any general reader of biography or for those with an interest in Russian history, this is book that needs to be read. We see the real face of a monster in the making.

A must read for anyone interested in the developing career of Josef Stalin.

Extremely well written.

very detailed information on subjects previously unknown except to scholars. Superb logical presentation and linkages to the older Stalin. A must read.

This is more of a reader's comment than a review.

I enjoyed the book and particularly liked the writing style. It was one of the better written and informative accounts of Russian life before the "October Revolution". Life,other than the Romanovs.

The way information was presented gave a good understanding on the ideology,dissentions,and distinctions of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

Resourses about Stalin's youth and development were interesting; describing much about his life from charmer,poet,and choir-boy to hoodlum,thug,and manipulator.

Also, interesting was the type of life led during exiles...not presented in any of my past history classes when I was a student.

His father was a drunk who regularly beat him. His name was Josef Stalin. Born in Russia's Georgia, in 1878, under the rule of the Romanov Czars, he excelled as a student, while building up a deep resentment towards the cruel occupiers of his Caucasus region. Stalin became a Marxist revolutionist and a master conspirator. The book, "Young Stalin," by Simon Sebag Montefiore, tells how this merciless, but extremely talented, psychopath was forged. The author said that he felt compelled, in part, to write this account of Stalin's formative years, as a result of the many "prejudiced" portraits from contemporaries of Stalin, like Leon Trotsky's. The latter's views, the author continued, "tell us more about [Trotsky's] own vanity, snobbery and lack of political skills than about the early Stalin." Trotsky, (a/k/a Lev Bronstein), who considered Stalin a provincial "mediocrity," was murdered, in 1940, on the dictator's orders. In any event, the author believes it was important to set the record straight. The man, with such gross psychopathic tendencies, who outwitted his rivals, like Lenin and Trotsky, industrialized Russia, won a war against Adolf Hitler's Germany, starved the peasantry into submission and conducted the "Great Terror," was surely anything but a "mediocrity."
"It is clear," author Montefiore concludes, "from hostile and friendly witnesses alike that Stalin was always `exceptional,' even from childhood." For a fuller picture of the quintessential monster Stalin, this superbly written and well documented tome, should be read in conjunction with another of the author's excellently researched books, "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar." In that volume, you will find detailed and chilling descriptions of the dictator's evil crimes against humanity (1923-53). To supplement that reading, I also recommend Donald Rayfield's "Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him."

In the Russian history that I have read, the struggle to succeed Lenin is framed as a contest between the brilliant organizer Leon Trotsky and the mediocre bureaucrat Josef Stalin. With the final result oddly being that the lesser man wins the battle. Having finished Simon Sebag Montefiore's brilliant "Young Stalin", I have come to see Stalin in a completely different light.

There is no doubt that Stalin was a paranoid tyrant who murdered millions of his own countrymen. Nevertheless, he was not the mediocre character his detractors have made him out to be. Through extensive research done in newly opened secret archives in the former Soviet Union, Montefiore has been able to assemble a rich and compelling portrait of the young Josef Stalin. He is a man possessed of both a damaged personality and a deep resevoir of brilliance.

"Young Stalin" is biography at its very best. Although I know what a beast he will turn into, this reader still found himself rooting for the young Josef as he moves from obscurity in rural Georgia to the teeming streets of wartime Petrograd. I cannot wait to read the conclusion of this story in, "The Court of the Red Czar." Highly recommended.

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was responsible for the deaths of between 20-25 million people. He was a cruel despot who defeated Nazi Germany, expanded the Gulag Archipeligo and ran the cruel police state of Soviet Russia. Most of those who read this new biography of the young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore are familiar with his previous book on the dictator "Stalin: The Red Czar" This new bigraphy covers the wild and violent life of Josef Djugashvilis (Stalin's real name) is eye opening and new ground for this reviewer who had read countless biographies of the Red Dictator. Montefiore covers the years from Stalin's birth until the beginning of Soviet power following victory in the October Revolution against the Kerensky goverenment in 1917.
He was born in Gori Georgia in the Caucasus in 1878. His father Beso was an alocholic wife and child beater who earned his living as a cobbler. He was illiterate, beat "Soso" (Stalin's nickname) and his wife
to a pulp. Beso left his promiscuous wife Keke who raised young Soso as a single mother despite having many affairs (one of whom was with the village priest!), Georgia was a republic and there was great hatred towards the Russian Czar. Gori was a violent, filthy, dangerous place where street fights broke out daily.Soso was a leader among the youth of the town who ruled them with ready fists and a quick mind.
Due to the influence his mother had with wealthy men in town, the young Soso received a good classical education and enrollment at the Tiflis Seminary. He refused to become a priest instead becoming an atheistic revolutionary devoted to Communist overthrow of the state.
Stalin left the seminary for a life of crime leading to extortion, robbing banks and highway robbery. He was adept at protection rackets and seduced every maiden in sight. Women flocked to the young peasant who was short, had a withered right arm but had fiery yellow eyes. He would marry twice. His first wife died young producing a child Yakov who was neglected by Stalin. His second wife committed suicide giving the dictator two children. Stalin was a horrible father and faithless husband. Stalin (whose name in Russian means "Steel") had at least two illegitimate children and probably many more. He cared for none of them being a complete egotistical person devoted to violence and the communist movement. Stalin was very mecurial with rapid mode swings. He trusted no one even members of his family. He loved his mother though she beat him.
Stalin spent many years in prison and in Siberian exile for his revolutionary activities. Mamy of Montefiore's pages are devoted to Soso's criminal and poltical underground movements in Georgia especially Tiflis and Baku where he blew up the Rothschild's oil refinery. He was always one step ahead of the hated Cheka (Tsar's secret service). He had many daring escapes, slept in many women's beds and was often on the lam. He never had a steady job after he left Tiflis.
Stalin was a supporter of Lenin and traveled all across Europe spreading the cause of the father of the Russian revolution. He was in Vienna in 1917 at the same time as Adolf Hitler although the two dictators never met. Stalin was a brilliant man with an irontrap memory; he was very sensitive never forgiving a slight or an enemy. While in Siberia he came to see himself as living alone in a hut surrounded by wild wolves. Stalin once in power made sure the wolves threatening his power were eliminated by murder and exile.
We see the young Stalin as a man with many aliases, disguises (he often dressed in drag), a Revolutionary Romeo and an autodidatic mind always learning how to become powerful and retain power. He was Machiavelli's Prince in peasant garb.
Stalin came to power following the death of Lenin in 1924. He held on to total power over the Soviet nation until his death in 1953. During his cruel beyond words regime millions of Soviet citizens would die or be exiled to distant Siberia.
Anyone who picks up this well written biography of a key figure of the twentieth century will learn surprising facts about the Kremlin dictator.
He was a poet, had a good singing voice, enjoyed classical music and folk songs and was one very tough customer in a violent society.
Montefiore is always worth reading. This is an excellent biography well recommended!

"WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS" I love this book! I happen to be a huge fan of Stalin's I will admit! He's possibley the most corrupt, but at the same time most interesting human in the history of mankind! Even as a youth he's more interesting! As a child he was abused by his dirty no good drunken father, so technically I was glad when his father died. But I had no idea his father actually abondond his mother and him. And his mother was really no better then his father. She was tough, determinded, and she tried to make Stalin into a priest! Shame on her! I mean if Gori was such a violent town, then why didn't Stalin's parents move to some other town in Georiga?! And Stalin was a tough youth I'll give him that. But heck I admire that he could even somehow lure his teacher into a closet and threaten him! Heck I couldn't even do that. Not that I want to. And he was blessed with a beautiful singing voice. Wow! And it talks about a crush he had on a Georigan girl when he was just thirteen!

But anyways, to his grown up days. As a young man Stalin looked very Georigan, he had a swarthy complextion, black hair, and nice looking lips, but there was one trait that was rare to a Georigan and perhaps even to the human race that he possesed. Those yellow (or techically) hazel eyes of his. And he also possessed killer insticts and high intellect. A deadly combanation if you ask me. And supposibly he was handsome to women, especially Russian woman! Despite the fact that smallpoxs disfigured his face leaving pock scars. He had a long list of ex-girlfriends, lovers, fiances, and even seduced a 13 year old girl. Heck I could never have that many lovers! And he married a nice, beautiful Georgian girl named Kathrine. She even bore him a son, but sadly she died. And I hate to be the one to say this, but I hate her parents for blaming her death on Stalin. It seemed to me that he didn't want her to die, despite the fact that he was a total workaholic. But back to the lovers, he not only broken up with some of them and abondoned others, but he left illegimate children with them! Sounds to me like he has trouble with women in general. Espcially when it comes to keeping them! XD


But onto his Bolshivic career. Lenin was possibly the worst role model in the world! Heck if Lenin really cared for Stalin's well being, then he wouldn't have put him in charge of robbing banks or creating heists. Yes it's true! But I'm not suprised at Stalin for committing those crimes. I'm really not. But yes Stalin, robbed, murdered and even hurt other people. In fact some of his allies someday would become his worst eneimes and he would even have them desposed of.

Now onto Trotsky! He was in fact the biggest, vainest, most snobbiest Bolshivic ever! God it's no wonder Stalin didn't like him! Ok so I don't know if that's the reason, but who cares! But I am not a Trotsky fan so there, enough said.

And onto Stalin's second wife Nadya! God she was no Kathrine I'll tell you right now. She didn't even seem like a very nice person. In fact it seems to me like she was more obsessed with Stalin then actually in love with him! But that's my opinon. And her mother, I don't like her mother. Her mother was a --ore! But that's all I have to say, for now.

Stalin also seemed to be good with children, and even animals at times. Which leads me to one question. Whatever happened to his dog Tishka?!

But anyways, I loved this book and I recomend it for Stalin haters, lovers, Stalinists, whatever.

Simon Sebag Montefiore has a habit, by his pedestrian ways, of annoying not just the historian, but perhaps also the more intellectual kind of reader. And he does so not just by selling more books than his collegues. In his new book on Stalin Montefiore can't resist temptation, opening with a bankrobbery and describing it in glowing terms. Since the rest of Young Stalin is strictly chronological, and the robbery takes place in 1907, this is a deliberate choice. It's Hollywood, not history. Montefiore talks about `heists', `glamourpussy's' and `spooks'. Richard Lourie, writing a piece for the New York Times is scathing about Montefiore. Remarking upon how Djugashvili became Stalin, he writes: "You won't find out here. Simon Sebag Montefiore, the author of "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar," is not one historian but two. The first is capable of serious research and insight, but he is eclipsed by the second, who sees history as scandal and its writing as gossip. Vanity Fair goes to Lubyanka." Orlando Figes writes, in the New York Review (Rise of a Gangster): `Young Stalin' is not without its weaknesses. Scholars may have reservations about its occcasional lapses into semifictional narrative, while others may be driven mad by the endnotes, from which in many cases it is virtually impossible to find the sources for quotations in the text."
Although it seems to me that Figes is more rational than Lourie, there is a lot of truth in these observations. When I started reading his first volume on Stalin (Court of the Red Tsar), I felt the same way. I was irritated by the tone and by the novellistic approach. And I felt again, exactly the same way, when I started in Young Stalin, more so even, probably because of the unnecessary heist (sorry) at te beginning. But in the end you surrender: you just have to start admiring the immense amount of detectivework, the investigation of numerous sources, the detailed and very factual approach. Montefiore may be seduced by his own story, but he tells it very well. His research is terrific, but so is his style. And I find it silly to complain that Montefiore is so busy "glamourizing his hero" (Lourie) that there is no insight left. That isn't true. The enormous amount of facts that Montefiore presents, is chilling enough. And is it, after having read Kearshaw on Hitler, possible to tell how the young man became the dictator? The best thing to hope for is that a biography gives you the facts. The rest is mystery. In the end you can only - like Figes does in the New York Review - admire the book, which ends in 1917. And since Court of the Red Tsar begins, more or less, in 1932, there are 15 more years to hope for.

Montefiore explores the early years of the life of Stalin in Georgia and Siberia. What emerges is an entirely new perspective on the man behind the monster. It may be the first new interpretation in years and a wonderful read. This is history at its best and most enjoyable.

Montefiore gives the best that can be delivered in a biography of this dark shadow over the 20th century. As he did in Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, he renders not just a narrative, but a tableau of Stalin's environment, be it in the outlands of Stalin's birthplace in Gori, the boomtown of Baku, or the meetings, plots and cavortings of the Social Democratic radicals in Western Europe who became the Communist Party. Most important of all, we see how Stalin, a promising poet, scheming bank robber, avid reader, political prisoner, and talented singer, works hardest to cultivate his darkest instincts to manipulate all and everything around him. I wish I had this book many years ago when reading Dosteyevsky's novels-- it puts the characters he wrote about in their time (somewhat) and place.

It's a page turner.

I found this book to be very interesting. Stalin's life before the Russian revolution (which occurred when he was almost forty) has been largely neglected by biographers. Montefiore succeeds in helping to fill this gap. Reading this book I was reminded of Robert Conquest's admonition that to acquire a true understanding of the Soviet government (especially under Stalin) one would be well served by watching gangster movies. Stalin was indeed a gangster. Robbing banks, extortion, kidnapping, whacking his enemies, he did it all. Later when he was in power he tried to suppress all knowledge of his unsavory beginnings. Thanks to Mr. Montefiore's research we can see how sordid Stalin's youth really was.

I found this book to be very mundane and too specific into other persons that I cared too little about. I much more preferred to understand what (early on!) drove Stalin to do the things he was later to do in the future. In my opionion the author dwelled into this aspect only superficially.

I found this to be a boring and forced read!

I came away from "Young Stalin" very impressed. The author has done a superb job of constructing Josef Stalin's life story from his birth to his initial rise at the start of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. I can't remember being as impressed with a book's research as I was with this book. There is a wealth of information on Stalin's early life -- a period that has never been written about in such great detail -- tapped from hundreds of new sources and revealed in fascinating text. Even if you're not terribly interested in Stalin's life -- I wasn't -- you will find this book interesting, as Stalin's early life was one adventure after another.

The book begins by discussing Stalin's birth to a tough-minding, loving mother and an alcoholic father in a town in Georgia as dirt-poor as anything imaginable. From there, Stalin excelled in school, and nearly became a priest, but was ironically driven away by excessively strict priests at his school, running right into the arms of the revolutionary beliefs that were taking the world by storm at the end of the 19th Century. It was at this point that Stalin's life really began to take shape. From there, Stalin became a shadowy figure in the underground, specializing in everything from arch-conspirator, to bank robber extraordinaire, to extortionist, to intelligence specialist, to counter-intelligence expert, to even murderer. Using his dark intelligence, over time Stalin became the key problem-solver for Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, helping rid the party of spies -- both real and imagined -- and planning and executing the bank robberies which would fund Lenin and his fledging Bolshevik Party in its early days.

Between the events shaping Stalin's rise, the author does a brilliant job in discussing and highlighting many of the more "colorful" events in his young life. These events include Stalin's many, many affairs and several illegitimate children, how his amazing calmness and coldness allowed him to intimidate or control countless lackies nearly all of whom he later discarded, how he survived astonishingly brutal stretches of exile in Siberia, in particular a four year stretch on the Artic Circle in an area that is closer to being a hellhole that any other place imaginable, his many escapes from bumbling Tsarist police, and many other great tales. The author's writing is sharp and lively, and he well bolsters these and other stories with copious amounts of starred-* notes at the bottom nearly every page providing details of forgotten stories. Specifically, I loved how the author would tell what later became of the hundreds of people who Stalin came across in his youth; not surprisingly, nearly all of them despite often strong loyalty, were later imprisoned and/or killed by Stalin once he became supreme leader of the country. While the author acknowledges time and again what an astonishing brute and killer Stalin would later become, he does so with kind of a bemusement. Indeed, while it is easier to slap that label on Hitler because he was such a cold-hearted martinet, it is tougher with Stalin simply because he had so much personality, charisma, and wit! He really was a fascinating figure. As I noted above, the author has constructed such a sharp look at Stalin by tapping dozens of unpublished memoirs of former associates and friends of Stalin, many of whom he later forgot or destroyed.

After finishing this book, I was struck by what a mystery Stalin was, and continues to be. While the book well captures his ferocity, brilliance, zealotry, taste for young girls, lack of loyalty to even his closest friends, cold heart, and difficult upbringing, I think the author well encapsulates Stalin when, near the end, he simply calls him "weird". Despite possessing strong intelligence, a loving mother, and many loyal friends and colleagues, he was a thug who reveled in violence and mayhem, and when he became leader, he liquidated even his closest allies. The reason he became that man? Well, that's impossible to say, even with this great book. Needless to say that his cold heart made it easier for him to treat people so poorly and always possess the view that human life had almost no value.

This is a very impressive book. I'm not trying to repeat myself, I just came away with that feeling. The book does not tackle the heady diplomatic and war decisions in Stalin's later life -- those are in the author's other book on Stalin -- but focuses on his early life and many of the fascinating gossipy elements that aren't widely known. It's a little long (nearly 400 pages), but an easy and fun read. If you're a student of any history, it is well worth your time.

Five stars.

The author is a bit too much of a sensationalist journalist, and the text is rather jumpy.

What is still lacking is any sense of Stalin's intellectual development. The author never discusses Stalin's writings or his response to anything he read. It's very disappointing in this regard. I guess someone else will have to write

STALIN'S INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

This book gave me back my faith in the art of biography, that something new can be found about even the most heavily referenced figures. Although I've read many Stalin biographies, in most of them the Vozhd's early years failed to come into focus. We learned little about the family other than papa Beso's drunken brutality and about mama Keke's resourcefulness and pride.

Yet, even in this most studied of lives, there is plenty of gold to be found by those who know where to look. Montefiore takes us back to the almost Mediterranean splendor of the Caucasus, a land of fierce feuds and vendette, of revolutionary nobles and passionate women, where everything (the weather, the clothing, the food, the tempers) is as un-Russian as can be. Stalin was definitely a Caucasian. He was proud and violent, but also very sharp and able to behave with unexpected generosity. He was extremely bright and amazingly well read. It is easy to see why Stalin was offended by the poet Mandelstam's celebrated line in his "Ode to Stalin", about "His fat fingers" "slimy like slugs". Stalin surely regarded himself as an intellectual and this description as a dim-witted vulgarian could only wound him deeply. In his pictures as a young man he is curiously good looking, and one can imagine the attraction this bright young rebel might have had for all sorts of women. In this Stalin was very unlike Hitler, for whom fleshly pleasures were repellent, and rather like Mussolini who was to the end a ladies' man.

Stalin's friends come alive in this book. Sure, they felt no compunction about cutting an enemy's throat, or blowing up an oil refinery, or bombing a police station, but they were also able to have fun, to drink, to joke, perhaps like many rebels of our day. It is to me a mistery how such a fanatic as Stalin, whose faith in revolutionary communism was boundless, could also enjoy all sorts of social and physical pleasures. Perhaps the explanation might be in his mother's example. Keke Geladze, as religious a woman as ever lived, was not above drinking or taking up lovers.

Stalin's environment also becomes completely understandable. Georgia was much like the American far West, a violent borderland where strong men imposed their will on others and insults where washed away in blood. Many Georgian notables supported the rebels not because they sympathised with socialism but because they saw them as nationalists fighting against the Russian invaders. It is a tragedy that Stalin ordered the murder of so many of his former backers, and that he came, in time, to be even more Russian than the Tsar ever was. Far from being a social outsider, in Georgia Stalin was known to everyone in his hometown, and he was very close to the local nobility, magnates, clergy, intellectuals and criminals. Stalin was uniquely Georgian, which might explain to some extent his current popularity there.

These are just a few of the surprises this book has in store. It includes several surprisingly good poems by Stalin as a young man. It is a pity that in later years he would dedicate himself to writing leaden treatises on subjects such as linguistics, when in fact he was a light, luminous poet. It has some wonderful pictures of a few of the Vozhd's girlfriends, and they are also surprisingly good looking. But its greatest triumph is that it shows how Josif-Soso-Koba-Ivanovitch became Stalin. You take a boy of many gifts (bright, curious, brave, strong) and with a few defects (proud, spiteful, fanatical) and subject him to violence and brutality during his early years, then allow him to develop his intellect while leaving his morality stunted, place him in an environment where he might become a negative leader without being punished for it, add in social ferment and revolution in the air, and then a mighty conflagration. The boy is father to the man. Stalin was not a wolf or a beast in human shape, as many said, he was just that same boy Soso, but now inmeasurably powerful, and with history on his side.

Stalin's enemies dismissed him as "the man who missed the Revolution", "a grey blur", a nonentity who sidelined Lenin's true heirs through bureaucratic wiles. But although he was a terrorist, Stalin was no "grey blur": he was one of the most fascinating personalities yet encountered, a colourful bundle of contradictions, intellectual and man of action, womanizer and ascetic, political fanatic and cynical pragmatist. Far from having usurped a role reserved to other revolutionaries such as Trotski or Bukharin, Stalin was Lenin's true heir, which is not meant to be a praise.

This is a brilliant book, with enormous cinematic potential. It begs to be made into a movie.

This book gave back my faith in the art of biography, that something new can be found about even the most heavily referenced figures. Although I've read many Stalin biographies, in most of them the Vozhd's early years failed to come into focus. We learned little about the family other than papa Beso's drunken brutality and about mama Keke's resourcefulness and pride.

Yet, even in this most studied of lives, there is plenty of gold to be found by those who know how to look. Montefiore takes us back to the almost Mediterranean splendor of the Caucasus, a land of fierce feuds and vendette, of revolutionary nobles and passionate women, where everything (the weather, the clothing, the food, the tempers) is as un-Russian as can be. Stalin was definitely a Caucasian. He was proud and violent, but also very sharp and able to behave with unexpected generosity. He was extremely bright and amazingly well read. It is easy to see why Stalin was offended by the poet Mandelstam's celebrated line in his "Ode to Stalin", about "His fat fingers" "slimy like slugs". Stalin surely regarded himself as an intellectual and this description as a dim-witted vulgarian could only wound him deeply. In his pictures as a young man he is curiously good looking, and one can imagine the attraction this bright young rebel might have had for all sorts of women. In this Stalin was very unlike Hitler, for whom fleshly pleasures were repellent, and rather like Mussolini who was to the end a ladies' man.

Stalin's friends come alive in this book. Sure, they felt no compunction about cutting an enemy's throat, or blowing up an oil refinery, or bombing a police station, but they were also able to have fun, to drink, to joke, perhaps like many rebels of our day. It is to me a mistery how such a fanatic as Stalin, whose faith in revolutionary communism was boundless, could also enjoy all sorts of social and physical pleasures. Perhaps the explanation might be in his mother's example. Keke Geladze, as religious a woman as ever lived, was not above drinking or taking up lovers.

Stalin's environment also becomes completely understandable. Georgia was much like the American far West, a violent borderland where strong men imposed their will on others and insults where washed away in blood. Many Georgian notables supported the rebels not because they sympathised with socialism but because they saw them as nationalists fighting against the Russian invaders. It is a tragedy that Stalin ordered the murder of so many of his former backers, and that he came, in time, to be even more Russian than the Tsar ever was. Far from being a social outsider, in Georgia Stalin was known to everyone in his hometown, and he was very close to the local nobility, magnates, clergy, intellectuals and criminals. Stalin was uniquely Georgian, which might explain to some extent his current popularity there.

These are just a few of the surprises this book has in store. It includes several surprisingly good poems by Stalin as a young man. It is a pity that in later years he would dedicate himself to writing leaden treatises on subjects such as linguistics, when in fact he was a light, luminous poet. It has some wonderful pictures of a few of the Vozhd's girlfriends, and they are also surprisingly good looking. But its greatest triumph is that it shows how Josif-Soso-Koba-Ivanovitch became Stalin. You take a boy of many gifts (bright, curious, brave, strong) and with a few defects (proud, spiteful, fanatical) and subject him to violence and brutality during his early years, then allow him to develop his intellect while leaving his morality stunted, place him in an environment where he might become a negative leader without being punished for it, add in social ferment and revolution in the air, and then a mighty conflagration. The boy is father to the man. Stalin was not a wolf or a beast in human shape, as many said, he was just that same boy Soso, but now inmeasurably powerful, and with history on his side.

Stalin's enemy's dismissed him as "the man who missed the Revolution", "a grey blur", a nonentity who sidelined Lenin's true heirs through bureaucratic wiles. But although he was a terrorist, Stalin was no "grey blur": he was one of the most fascinating personalities yet encountered, a colourful bundle of contradictions, intellectual and man of action, womanizer and ascetic, political fanatic and cynical pragmatist. Far from having usurped a role reserved to other revolutionaries such as Trotski or Bukharin, Stalin was Lenin's true heir.

This is a brilliant book, with enormous cinematic potential. It begs to be made into a movie.

This book gave back my faith in the art of biography, that something new can be found about even the most heavily referenced figures. Although I've read many Stalin biographies, in most of them the Vozhd's early years failed to come into focus. We learned little about the family other than papa Beso's drunken brutality and about mama Keke's resourcefulness and pride.

Yet, even in this most studied of lives, there is plenty of gold to be found by those who know how to look. Montefiore takes us back to the almost Mediterranean splendor of the Caucasus, a land of fierce feuds and vendette, of revolutionary nobles and passionate women, where everything (the weather, the clothing, the food, the tempers) is as un-Russian as can be. Stalin was definitely a Caucasian. He was proud and violent, but also very sharp and able to behave with unexpected generosity. He was extremely bright and amazingly well read. It is easy to see why Stalin was offended by the poet Mandelstam's celebrated line in his "Ode to Stalin", about "His fat fingers" "slimy like slugs". Stalin surely regarded himself as an intellectual and this description as a dim-witted vulgarian could only wound him deeply. In his pictures as a young man he is curiously good looking, and one can imagine the attraction this bright young rebel might have had for all sorts of women. In this Stalin was very unlike Hitler, for whom fleshly pleasures were repellent, and rather like Mussolini who was to the end a ladies' man.

Stalin's friends come alive in this book. Sure, they felt no compunction about cutting an enemy's throat, or blowing up an oil refinery, or bombing a police station, but they were also able to have fun, to drink, to joke, perhaps like many rebels of our day. It is to me a mistery how such a fanatic as Stalin, whose faith in revolutionary communism was boundless, could also enjoy all sorts of social and physical pleasures. Perhaps the explanation might be in his mother's example. Keke Geladze, as religious a woman as ever lived, was not above drinking or taking up lovers.

Stalin's environment also becomes completely understandable. Georgia was much like the American far West, a violent borderland where strong men imposed their will on others and insults where washed away in blood. Many Georgian notables supported the rebels not because they sympathised with socialism but because they saw them as nationalists fighting against the Russian invaders. It is a tragedy that Stalin ordered the murder of so many of his former backers, and that he came, in time, to be even more Russian than the Tsar ever was. Far from being a social outsider, in Georgia Stalin was known to everyone in his hometown, and he was very close to the local nobility, magnates, clergy, intellectuals and criminals. Stalin was uniquely Georgian, which might explain to some extent his current popularity there.

These are just a few of the surprises this book has in store. It includes several surprisingly good poems by Stalin as a young man. It is a pity that in later years he would dedicate himself to writing leaden treatises on subjects such as linguistics, when in fact he was a light, luminous poet. It has some wonderful pictures of a few of the Vozhd's girlfriends, and they are also surprisingly good looking. But its greatest triumph is that it shows how Josif-Soso-Koba-Ivanovitch became Stalin. You take a boy of many gifts (bright, curious, brave, strong) and with a few defects (proud, spiteful, fanatical) and subject him to violence and brutality during his early years, then allow him to develop his intellect while leaving his morality stunted, place him in an environment where he might become a negative leader without being punished for it, add in social ferment and revolution in the air, and then a mighty conflagration. The boy is father to the man. Stalin was not a wolf or a beast in human shape, as many said, he was just that same boy Soso, but now inmeasurably powerful, and with history on his side.

This is a brilliant book, with enormous cinematic potential. It begs to be made into a movie.

Montefiore paints a very vivid picture of Stalin's youth, providing a comprehensive narrative from his birth in Georgia to his rise to power as a member of the inner circle of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. He shows a youthful Stalin who was variously a seminary student, a star choirboy, a proud Georgian poet and a rabble-rousing Marxist fanatic. He shows his development as an undercover party leader, including his role as an organizer of bank robberies and extortions, and emphasizes his early ruthlessness in organizing the executions of traitors. He explores the different facets of Stalin's life as a Siberian exile, an escapee, a charming philanderer, and an absentee father. And finally he shows the rising Bolshevik leader: a founder of Pravda, one of Lenin's most trusted lieutenants, ruthless and pragmatic, who could be relied on to do the dirty work, and who was already one of the innermost circle when the Bolsheviks seized power.

Montefiore uses a variety of materials, but especially unpublished memoirs from Stalin's early friends and colleagues newly available in the Georgian communist party archives. Material from these was sometimes used in the official Stalinist biographies, but anything that deviated from the official dull accounts was quietly buried. Montefiore explains that both Stalin and Trotsky were eager to obscure Stalin's early life: Trotsky wished to belittle him as a mere party bureaucrat, while Stalin feared that his unruly past would be an obstacle as he moved towards supreme power. Montefiore acknowledges the difficulties in assessing the accuracy of the various memoirs, but observes that there are enough different accounts (and also independent accounts from refugees in the West) that even if we can't be sure of all the details, the overall picture seems sound.

In Montefiore's portrayal, one striking aspect of Stalin's youth is that he was genuinely immersed in a world of treachery and betrayal. A wanted man, always on the run, several times betrayed and captured due to Tsarist double agents deep in the Bolshevik leadership, he was right to be distrustful and paranoid. At this time in Stalin's life there really were traitors everywhere.

Overall, this is a fascinating account of a wild young revolutionary daredevil. But probably its greatest value is in providing insights towards the underlying strengths and weaknesses of the later General Secretary Stalin. We see his considerable personal charm and his vast capacity for organization. But we also see his cynicism, his mistrustfulness, and his willingness to use force and terror as everyday tactics.

In his heyday, Stalin's early life was presented in extremely bland tones. The world was left with the impression of a rather dull apparatchik who had somehow seized power from within the Soviet communist party machine.

Montefiore paints a much livelier picture of Stalin's Georgian youth. He provide a comprehensive narrative that covers Stalin's youth from his birth in Georgia to his rise to power as a member of the inner circle of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. He shows a youthful Stalin who was variously a seminary student, a star choirboy, a proud poet, a Marxist fanatic and a trouble-making rabble rouser. He shows his development as an undercover party leader, including his role as an organizer of bank robberies and extortions, and emphasizes his early ruthlessness in organizing the executions of traitors. He explores the different facets of Stalin's life as a Siberian exile, an escapee, a charming philanderer, and an absentee father. And finally he shows the rising Bolshevik leader: a founder of Pravda, one of Lenin's most trusted lieutenants, ruthless and pragmatic, who could be relied on to do the dirty work, and who was already one of the innermost circle when the Bolsheviks seized power.

Montefiore uses a variety of materials, but especially unpublished memoirs from Stalin's early friends and colleagues newly available in the Georgian communist party archives. Material from these was sometimes used in the official Stalinist biographies, but anything that deviated from the official dull accounts was quietly buried. Montefiore explains that both Stalin and Trotsky were eager to obscure Stalin's early life: Trotsky wished to belittle him as a mere party bureaucrat, while Stalin feared that his unruly past would be an obstacle as he moved towards supreme power. Montefiore acknowledges the difficulties in assessing the accuracy of the various memoirs, but observes that there are enough different accounts (and also independent accounts from refugees in the West) that even if we can't be sure of all the details, the overall picture seems sound.

In Montefiore's portrayal, one striking aspect of Stalin's youth is that he was genuinely immersed in a world of treachery and betrayal. A wanted man, always on the run, several times betrayed and captured due to Tsarist double agents deep in the Bolshevik leadership, he was right to be distrustful and paranoid. At this time in Stalin's life there really were traitors everywhere.

Overall, this is a fascinating account of a wild young revolutionary daredevil. But probably its greatest value is in providing insights towards the underlying strengths and weaknesses of the later General Secretary Stalin. We see his considerable personal charm and his vast capacity for organization. But we also see his cynicism, his mistrustfulness, and his willingness to use force and terror as everyday tactics.