Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore (or the Stalin biography of your choice) (April/May 2020)

[Nigeyb]

Welcome to our May 2020 buddy read of....


Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

OR

A Stalin biography of your choice

This thread will open in mid-May 2020

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar....
This thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar.

Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals in captivating detail the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with extraordinary narrative verve, this magnificent feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.

[Nigeyb]

I've decided to open this thread up early as there are a few of us either reading it already, or poised to start.


If you're not able to join the conversation until May, or even beyond, rest assured that the thread will remain open and it's always great when discussions are revived by a group member reading the book a bit later.

I'm just over halfway now and really enjoying this highly readable account.

There's already quite a bit of discussion about this book, and Young Stalin, and about the man more generally, over on our Joseph Stalin thread.....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Looking forward to more discussion about whichever Stalin biography you choose to read - and more generally about the Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until 1953 as the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and premier of the Soviet Union

Needless to say it's quite a tale

[Nigeyb]

I'm still immersed in the war years and have read about a fascinating visit to Stalin by Churchill - anyone reading this one should really enjoy it

I had not realised just how badly Stalin managed the war for the Soviet Union, especially in the early years.

Although I suppose that might have been obvious given how Hitler's invasion was so nearly successful.

Overall this is a wonderful account - very well written

[Roman Clodia]

Just to echo Nigeyb's accolades, I'm enjoying this hugely. I like the way it concentrates on Stalin the man and his personality rather than becoming a history of the USSR.

That said, there are a few tiny niggles for me: SS-M clearly hates the Bolsheviks, calling them 'thugs' - well, there are some scary people (Beria, Stalin himself) but when the movement started it was almost evangelical (Stalin teaching people to read in prison, as Susan told us on the other thread). As with the French revolution, I think we should be wary of conflating the ideological underpinnings which were genuine with the horrific direction that things went in later.

This is a small thing though. Overall, this is completely gripping.

[Nigeyb]

That's a very good point RC. I find it hard to separate the brutality of the regimes and the extraodinary levels of torture and arbitrary assassinations with Marxist doctrine. Perhaps what all these barbarous dictators have in common is that there are no checks and balances on their power.

[Roman Clodia]

Marx and Marxism, of course, doesn't *intrinsically* have anything to do with torture/genocide/terror (the French revolution was before Marx, obvs) and ultra-right regimes have the same appalling record - apart from the obvious Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, we can think about theocracies such as in the Middle East. But yes, it's the dictatorship, unbridled power, and destruction of any forms of democracy/constitutional resistance that seems to be the crux.

I'm not defending Stalin (!) and generally think the book is excellent - there are just a few peeks of SS-M's own politics that slightly coarsen the narrative for me.

[Nigeyb]

To be honest I've not noticed it but I will look out for it from here on in.

Overall it feels to be a pretty even handed portrait which seeks to highlight all facets of Stalin's complex personality.

[Roman Clodia]

I definitely agree that it does a fantastic job of showing us just how complex Stalin was. I'm so glad your updates persuaded me to read this!

[Nigeyb]

Me too - and even more glad that you're enjoying it as much as me

[Susan]

Having LOVED Young Stalin (Stalin was surprisingly handsome when he was young, I thought!) I have now embarked on this. Just read the prologue and the suicide of his wife. I had no idea she was mentally unwell, but the idea of everyone standing around, not wanting to break the news to him, reminds me of the scene in the film, "The Death of Stalin," where everyone is terrified to get medical help. That kind of power seems to, not only, corrupt, but isolate and paralyse.

[Nigeyb]

I've just read about Svetlana's wartime affair with Aleksei Kapler who was 38 years old. Svetlana was a mere 16. Needless to say Stalin does not react well. Georgian fathers are, apparently, notoriously protective. That said, most fathers would probably look askance if it was their 16 year child under similar circumstances.

[Susan]

Although Stalin did impregnate a girl of 13 in Siberia (twice, in fact), so that is a little hypocritical... A case of don't do what I did, do what I say.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan wrote: "Stalin was surprisingly handsome when he was young, I thought!

Ooh, me too!

Yes, love your point about power isolating Stalin. Svetlana's memories of him are moving: I wonder if it's possible in her head to separate the protective, loving father she knew as a girl from the political monster he was on the world stage?

SS-M seems to intimate that the death of his wife was a watershed moment for Stalin in psychological terms, and that he never recovered from it. Would history have been different had she lived?

[Susan]

His first wife died too, which I think affected him deeply, even though things were just in such upheaval, at that time, he probably dwelt less on it. He was too busy looking over his shoulder, or being arrested. Perhaps it was the fact that his second wife dying, really made him feel that he was unable to sustain a relationship without disaster?

[Roman Clodia]

I didn't realise this was a second marriage. Suicide, too, must multiply the trauma. Yes, maybe her death made him realise how alone he was with even old comrades conscious of him being 'Stalin' the leader, rather than the man.

[Nigeyb]

The narration by Jonathan Aris on the Audible unabridged audiobook is really engaging.


I'm now in the latter stages of WW2 and Stalin, now confident of victory, is reverting to type. Long boozy dinners, and seeing conspiracies everywhere.

[Roman Clodia]

I've just finished the assassination and funeral of Kirov and the purges are just around the corner.

I loved the previous chapter on literature which has Stalin phoning Pasternak who was fascinated by him and dying to meet him.

[Roman Clodia]

Gosh, his sister-in-law! And interesting to see Khrushchev coming into more power. I'd thought that Beria would be more prominent in the story than he is so far, but there's plenty of time.

[Nigeyb]

Plenty of Beria later on, fear ye not Roman Clodia

[Roman Clodia]

Just got to the mention of the plot to assassinate Stalin via... poisoned book pages! Did Umberto Eco know this when he wrote The Name of the Rose?

[Nigeyb]

Nigeyb wrote: "Plenty of Beria later on, fear ye not Roman Clodia"


He really takes centre stage after the WW2

Incredibly effective at his job - an absolute monster though

[Nigeyb]

The section about Stalin's taste in films is extraordinary - every night in the post war era he'd watch films with the Politburo before eating until dawn. This was essentially how he governed.

[Roman Clodia]

Isn't it striking how many politicians are insomniacs or have the ability to keep working with very little sleep? Didn't Maggie Thatcher say she only needed 4 hours sleep a night?

My next chapter is where the purges really get underway now that they've pulled off the first show-trial.

[Susan]

Sounds a bit like a certain current politician...

[Roman Clodia]

And don't doctors say it's dangerous, that too little sleep over a long period affects brain chemistry and personality? Ha, a cure for megalomania could just be to tuck them up in bed every night with a soothing book... ;))

[Susan]

I am not sure the politician I had in mind reads.

[Roman Clodia]

... which is an indictment in itself!

[Nigeyb]

In 1948 Stalin's anti-semitism comes back with a vengeance and Soviet authorities launch a campaign to liquidate what was left of Jewish culture

Yikes

[Roman Clodia]

Beria is coming to the fore now.

How interesting that Stalin's circle put on a play mocking some of the assassinated... it reminded me of the masque in Wolf Hall about the cardinal that became such an emotional keynote for Cromwell.

[Roman Clodia]

Fascinating too that Stalin wouldn't attend torture/interrogation sessions or executions in person.

[Roman Clodia]

My god, slaughter by quota - I'm in the Great Terror now.

[Nigeyb]

Grim isn't it?

[Roman Clodia]

Grim indeed. I had previously thought that there'd been *some* reason for the purges, however unjustified, but the quota system seems to make it utterly random. I knew about the Red Army officers and the so-called 'Doctors Plot' (which I haven't got to yet), and, of course, the persecution of writers and artists like Mandelstam, but this is just a lottery of death.

[Nigeyb]

French wrestling - it almost sounds fun 😬

[Nigeyb]

Stalin’s 70th birthday celebration shortly before the Korean war. So many momentous events in this biography

[Roman Clodia]

Nigeyb wrote: "French wrestling - it almost sounds fun 😬"

Just got to the mention of 'French wrestling' - and prisoners beaten so hard their eyes pop out of their heads...

[Nigeyb]

Yep, fair to say you wouldn't want to get involved

[Nigeyb]

I'm closing in on the end and Stalin has had a stroke. The scenes following this make me realise how close to reality the film The Death of Stalin is. If you haven't seen the film you should prioritise it. Wonderful stuff.

[Nigeyb]

Finished.


What a tale. What a book.

5/5

[Judy]

I won't be reading this one but did recently see the film The Death of Stalin again, and agree it was brilliant. My son had been reading about Stalin and kept telling me which bits that I'd assumed were fiction were in fact based on fact!

[Nigeyb]

Based on this book and my memory of the film, I'd say about 80% is fact based, although the timeline was a bit different

[Roman Clodia]

I'm at the start of WW2, the Hitler-Stalin pact is in place. The section before was intense with Stalin's own close circle and family falling victim to the Terror. And Beria is now firmly on the scene. How funny that Putin's grandfather was cook to Lenin, Stalin and others!

[Nigeyb]

Roman Clodia wrote: "How funny that Putin's grandfather was cook to Lenin, Stalin and others! "

That was indeed a curious little coincidence

[Nigeyb]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I'm at the start of WW2, the Hitler-Stalin pact is in place"


I really enjoyed the chapters on the war years

[Susan]

I am back to this now, having finished my P D James for Detectives. Just beginning really and Stalin and holidays are being discussed, while famine hits Ukraine. I read Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine and it was horrifying.

Interesting that they liked to holiday in groups, often without women and children in tow.

[Roman Clodia]

Mr RC has been raving about Red Famine since he read it (on holiday!).

Yes, the whole 'bromance' thing of the Party is interesting - however much women are involved, they're still somehow subordinate to the 'boys'.

[Susan]

Not a typical beach read, but I tend to also take quite dark reads when I go away - probably because I am such a bad traveller! I must say I am delighted that I don't have to go on holiday this summer and face packing/unpacking and, worse, flying...

[Roman Clodia]

Susan wrote: "I must say I am delighted that I don't have to go on holiday this summer and face packing/unpacking and, worse, flying..."

Haha, in every cloud, as they say!

I'm the opposite as we can't usually do a beach holiday since Mr RC gets bored so last year we went to the Loire and the year before Florence/Sienna. But this year we'd been planning going to the Greek islands which would have been lovely.

I can see packing is a whole different thing when you have kids though. We tend to travel light; last year on Mr RC's motorbike - so I had distressingly little room for my frocks!

[Jill]

I should be down in Cornwall now, and missing it like crazy!

[Nigeyb]

Susan wrote: "I am delighted that I don't have to go on holiday this summer and face packing/unpacking and, worse, flying......"


I rarely fly or go abroard, for many reasons, mainly because of the environmental impact but also I don't enjoy the experience. I always prefer trains and boats to planes when I do travel.

I'm hoping that one of the silver linings of the current horror might be a reappraisal of travel. It's so lovely being able to hear birds at the moment, and the pollution levels are right down. What do you think? Might people start to re-evaluate their life choices? I hope so.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

We've got a booking for the Lake District (second year in a row) in August which I'm hoping we can still do. Last year was amazing. Two teenage kids were, to my amazement, happy to go on 1-4 hour walks, enjoy a pub meal in the evening, and then home to play some games. It was really magical despite quite a mixed bag weather-wise.

I suppose I'd better get this thread back on track now....

I was reflecting on this book which, I think, does an amazing job at humanising Stalin by giving the reader so much domestic detail on his life. However, to what extent does this detract from the horrors of his regime?