The Red Tsar

Sebag Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar is a superbly written and morbidly fascinating account of Stalin's life in the last two decades of his life, with side glances at the thugs around him. It's easy to say that Stalin was an unhinged monster, but Montefiore goes further to show how he manipulated (and often murdered) the senior Party members around him. It's a chilling story. One reviewer said that Montefiore pays no attention to the larger issues of collectivization, or the Terror, or WWII, which is true, but Montefiore's focus is to show the military-religious nature of Stalin's circle. His description of the murder of whole families is so calm and understated that it perfectly conveys the bureaucratic evil of the Terror. A great book.