Young Stalin / Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Sebag Montefiore, Simon, 1965-
2007
DK268.S8 M574 2007 (Mapit)
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Title
Young Stalin / Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Author
Sebag Montefiore, Simon, 1965-
ISBN
9781400044658 (alk. paper)
1400044650 (alk. paper)
Publication Details
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
Language
English
Description
xxxii, 460 p., [32] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 25 cm.
Call Number
DK268.S8 M574 2007
Dewey Decimal Classification
947.084/2092 B
Summary
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: a merciless psychopath who was, as well, a consummate politician, the dynamic world statesman who helped create and industrialize the USSR, outplayed Churchill and Roosevelt, and defeated Hitler? Historian Montefiore tells the story of a charismatic, 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, 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. The paranoid criminal underworld was Stalin's natural habitat, and murderous banditry and political gangsterism, combined with pitiless ideology, enabled Stalin to dominate the Kremlin--and create the USSR in his flawed image.--From publisher description.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [429]-438) and index.
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Pt. 1. Keke's miracle : Soso
Crazy Beso
Brawlers, wrestlers and choirboys
A hanging in Gori
The poet and the priesthood
The "young man with the burning eyes"
Battle of the dormitories : Soso versus Father "Black spot"
The weatherman : parties and princes
Stalin goes underground : Konspiratsia
"I'm working for the Rothschilds!" : fire, massacre and arrest in Batumi
Pt. 2. The prisoner
The frozen Georgian : Siberian exile
Bolshevik temptress
1905 : king of the mountain
1905 : fighters, urchins and dressmakers
1905 : the Mountain Eagle : Stalin meets Lenin
The man in grey : marriage, mayhem (and Sweden)
Pirate and father
Stalin in London
Kamo goes insane : the game of bandits and cossacks
The tragedy of Kato : Stalin's stony heart
Boss of the black city : plutocrats, protection-rackets and piracy
Louse racing, murder and madness : prison games
"River cock" and the noblewoman
"The milkman" : was Stalin a Tsarist agent?
Pt. 3. Two lost fiancées and a pregnant peasant
The Central Committee and "Glamourpuss" the schoolgirl
"Don't forget that name and be very wary!"
The escapist : Kamo's leap and the last bank robbery
Travels with the mysterious Valentina
Vienna, 1913 : the wonderful Georgian, the Austrian artist and the Old Emperor
The secret policeman's ball : betrayal in drag
Pt. 4. "Darling, I'm in desperate straits"
1914 : arctic sex comedy
The hunter
The Robinson Crusoe of Siberia
Stalin's reindeer-propelled sleigh and a Siberian son
Pt. 5. 1917 spring : floundering leader
1917 summer : sailors on the streets
1917 autumn : Soso and Nadya
1917 winter : the countdown
Glorious October 1917 : the bungled uprising
Power : Stalin out of the shadows.

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