Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

Description

This widely acclaimed 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 the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with bracing narrative verve, this 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. Contents Contents Introduction and Acknowledgements List of Characters Prologue: The Holiday Dinner: 8 November vi xix xxi xviii xxix 1 Part One: That Wonderful Time: Stalin and Nadya, 1878-1932 1 The Georgian and the Schoolgirl 2 The Kremlin Family 3 The Charmer 4 Famine and the Country Set: Stalin at the Weekend 5 Holidays and Hell: the Politburo at the Seaside 6 Trains Full of Corpses: Love, Death and Hysteria 7 Stalin the Intellectual Part Two: The Jolly Fellows: Stalin and Kirov, 1932-1934 8 The Funeral 9 The Omnipotent Widower and his Loving Family: Sergo the Bolshevik Prince 10 Spoiled Victory: Kirov, the Plot and the Seventeenth Congress 11 Assassination of the Favourite 12 'I'm Orphaned': the Connoisseur of Funerals 13 A Secret Friendship: The Rose of Novgorod 14 The Dwarf Rises; Casanova Falls 15 The Tsar Rides the Metro 16 Take Your Partners; Mount Your Prisoners: the Show Trial 17 The Executioner: Beria's Poison and Bukharin's Dosage 18 Sergo: Death of a 'Perfect Bolshevik 19 The Massacre of Generals, Fall of Yagoda, and Death of a Mother 20 Blood Bath by Numbers 21 'The Blackberry' at Work and Play 22 Bloody Shirtsleeves: the Intimate Circle of Murder 23 Social Life in the Terror: the Wives and Children of the Magnates 24 Stalin's Jewesses and the Family in Danger 25 Beria and the Weariness of Hangmen 26 The Tragedy and Depravity of the Yezhovs 27 Death of the Stalin Family: a Strange Proposal and the Housekeeper Part Six: 'The Great Game1 : Hitler and Stalin, 1939-1941 28 The Carve-up of Europe: Molotov, Ribbentrop and Stalin's Jewish Question 29 The Murder of the Wives 30 Molotov Cocktails: the Winter War and Kulik's Wife 31 Molotov Meets Hitler: Brinkmanship and Delusion 32 The Countdown: 22 June 1941 Part Seven: War: The Bungling Genius, 1941-1942 33 Optimism and Breakdown 34 'Ferocious as a Dog': Zhdanov and the Siege of Leningrad 35 'Can You Hold Moscow 36 Molotov in London, Mekhlis in the Crimea, Khrushchev in Collapse 37 Churchill Visits Stalin: Marlborough vs Wellington 38 Stalingrad and the Caucasus: Beria and Kaganovich at War Part Eight: War: The Triumphant Genius, 1942-1945 39 The Supremo of Stalingrad 40 Sons and Daughters: Stalin and the Politburo's Children at War 44 The Bomb 45 Beria: Potentate, Husband, Father, Lover, Killer, Rapist 46 A Night in the Nocturnal Life of Joseph Vissarionovich: Tyranny by Movies and Dinners 47 Molotov's Chance: 'You'll Do Anything When You're Drunk 48 Zhdanov the Heir and Abakumov's Bloody Carpet 49 The Eclipse of Zhukov and the Looters of Europe: the Imperial Elite 50 'The Zionists Have Pulled One Over You 51 A Lonely Old Man on Holiday 52 Two Strange Deaths: the Yiddish Actor and the Heir Apparent Part Ten: The Lame Tiger, 1949-1953 53 Mrs Molotov's Arrest 54 Murder and Marriage: the Leningrad Case 55 Mao, Stalin's Birthday and the Korean War 56 The Midget and the Killer Doctors: Beat, Beat and Beat Again 5 7 Blind Kittens and Hippopotamuses: the Destruction of the Old Guard 58 'I Did Him In!': the Patient and his Trembling Doctors Postscript Select Bibliography Index