• About this Book
• About the Author
• Awards
• Read an Excerpt

Written by Simon Sebag Montefiore

• Format: Hardcover, 496 pages
• Publisher: Knopf
• On Sale: October 16, 2007
• Price: $30.00
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-4465-8 (1-4000-4465-0)

about this book

A revelatory account that finally unveils the shadowy journey from obscurity to power of the Georgian cobbler’s son who became the Red Tsar—the man who, along with Hitler, remains the modern personification of evil.

What makes a Stalin? What formed this merciless psychopath who was, as well, a consummate politician, the dynamic world statesman who helped create and industrialize the USSR, outplayed Churchill and Roosevelt, organized Stalingrad, took Berlin and defeated Hitler?

Young Stalin tells the story of a charismatic, darkly turbulent boy born into poverty, of doubtful parentage, scarred by his upbringing but possessed of unusual talents. Admired as a romantic poet and trained as a priest—both by the time he was in his early twenties—he found his true mission as a fanatical revolutionary. A mastermind of bank robbery, protection rackets, arson, piracy and murder, he was equal parts terrorist, intellectual and brigand. Here is the dramatic story of his friendships and hatreds, his many love affairs—with women from every social stratum and age group—his illegitimate children and his complicated relationship with the Tsarist secret police. Here is Stalin the arch-conspirator and escape artist whose brutal ingenuity so impressed Lenin that Lenin made him, along with Trotsky, top henchman. Montefiore makes clear how the paranoid criminal underworld was Stalin’s natural habitat, and how murderous Caucasian banditry and political gangsterism, combined with pitiless ideology, enabled Stalin to dominate the Kremlin—and create the USSR in his flawed image.

Based on ten years of research in newly opened archives in Russia and Georgia, Young Stalin—companion to the prizewinning Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar—is a brilliant prehistory of the USSR, a chronicle of the Revolution, and an intimate biography. A thrilling work of history, unparalleled in its scope, full of astonishing new evidence and utterly fascinating: this is how Stalin became Stalin.



“Superb . . . Stalin, as Montefiore shows, took pains to hide the facts of his youth–which in some ways lasted until he was nearly 40, when the Revolution broke out–and to make it difficult for him to be seen as anything but a great man. As Montefiore’s groundbreaking work shows, there was much to hide . . . Essential to understanding one of the 20th century’s premier monsters and the nation he wrought.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“A magnificent biography . . . Montefiore has produced a vivid psychological portrait of this dangerous, alluring, enigmatic man who, like Macavity, could vanish from the scenes of the outrages he masterminded–as he would, years later, when plotting the purges. There is so much so surprising about the young Stalin . . . A masterpiece of detail.” —Michael Binyon, The Times

“Montefiore's brilliantly researched and readable portrait of Stalin's youth ought to dispel the lingering myth [of an oaf-like Stalin] for ever . . . The picture that emerges is more colourful and more chilling, but above all it is more credible . . . Stalinism was a multi-faceted political system unique to its time. For all that, however, anyone who wants to understand it, and to understand the shaping of one of history's bloodiest dictators, must read this original and thought-provoking book.” —Catherine Merridale, The Guardian

“Outstanding . . . It is hard to imagine how this account can be improved on . . . Few academics have the gift that Montefiore has for making people open up their minds, hearts and archives . . . Every time [he] sends a ferret down a hole, he comes up with a juicy rabbit . . . Young Stalin is a prequel that outshines even Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar.” —Donald Rayfield, Literary Review

“The originality of Montefiore’s account lies in the connections he makes between the various episodes–the great leaps forward, as it were, from a solitary brooding childhood through a fugitive youth to a grown-up life of crime and revolution . . . Wonderfully readable.” —Hugh Barnes, The New Statesman

“Montefiore has a novelist’s eye for detail and the brio of a high-class journalist . . . The aim of any book is to inform, entertain, and be readable and this book does so admirably and frequently with a sense of humour. An amazing achievement.” —Jenny Erdal, Scotsman

“[A] magnificent ‘prequel’ . . . As with his previous book about Stalin in power, Montefiore has cast his net wide . . . I had always imagined that Stalin was a monster but, unlike Mao, a colourless one. How wrong I was and how fascinating he really was.” —Jonathan Mirsky, Spectator

“Young Stalin is exhilarating. Montefiore has brought together an astonishing array of often new, often first-hand sources, handled with a deft combination of scepticism and selectivity.  Here is the monster’s life before, and as, he heads into a destructive and proactive Bolshevism ideally suited to him (a context admirably developed here). We get bankrobbery; bastards; an unmythical Lenin; Arctic exile; revolution–all in a set of highly readable short chapters, including a Conradian London one.” —Robert Conquest, author of The Great Terror


“A richly and fluently documented study of the chief terrorist in the making . . . Usually it is the second half of Stalin’s life that has been under the spotlight . . . He disliked any inquisitiveness about his early years . . . [But Montefiore] argues (and I strongly agree with this) that those early years tell us a lot about the momentous second half of a murderous life . . . His chapters have an anecdotal exuberance and factual novelty. At the same time, he focuses the lens of his microscope over the blood-coloured fungus that grew from the spores of Stalin’s career. It is an impressive work of examination . . . Montefiore qualifies for the veteran-of-labour medal with his new book.” —Robert Service, The Sunday Times

“Should the life of a black-hearted ogre, a mass murderer who was the wickedest of the 20th-century’s monsters, be quite so entertaining? . . . The story Montefiore has told requires the psychological penetration and social omniscience of a great novelist. Dickens once or twice peeps over the biographer’s shoulder . . . Montefiore write[s] a racy, vivid biopic. Stalin the bank robber resembles James Cagney as his most revved-up; Stalin the buccaneer has the courtly panache of Errol Flynn . . . His effrontery is shockingly, shamefully irresistible.” —Peter Conrad, The Observer

“Macabrely fascinating . . . Montefiore has benefited from, among other things, extensive research in archives in Georgia recently made possible for an adventurous scholar . . . [Some] stages of Stalin’s life are worthy of Alexandre Dumas . . . Stalin’s character [is] brilliantly drawn.” —Antonia Fraser, Mail on Sunday

“Young Stalin is a gripping read . . . Montefiore’s research, especially in the Georgian archives, is brilliant. The book provides a wealth of serious and scurrilous detail, creating a memorable portrait of one of the twentieth century’s greatest monsters . . . An impressively objective book, considering that it covers the development of such an appalling tyrant.” —Anthony Beevor, Sunday Telegraph

“An outstanding book, full of surprises. In many ways Young Stalin is more fascinating than its companion volume [Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar] as the territory it covers is so unfamiliar . . . Here a rich and complex figure emerges from new material Montefiore has unearthed . . . Montefiore writes at a rollicking pace that captures how exciting it must have been for Stalin and his co-conspirators to make a revolution and create a new world . . . One of Montefiore’s great strengths is that he eschews psychobabble . . . He gives us unvarnished Stalin, often in the man’s own words . . . This book is a triumph of research and storytelling.”
—Victor Sebestyen, Evening Standard

“A thrilling portrait of Stalin’s youth. . . Montefiore has a literate traveller’s eye that reminds one of Patrick Leigh Fermor and he uses it well . . . He gives us a brilliant account of the great 1907 Tiflis Heist: the resulting scenes of mayhem were worthy of the De Niro and Pacino film Heat . . . Montefiore [makes] many astute characterisations . . . Remarkable.” —Michael Burleigh, Seven