Simon Sebag Montefiore

An alternative cover edition for ISBN 9781400076789 can be found hereThis widely acclaimed biography provides a vivid and riveting account of Stalin and his courtiers—killers, fanatics, women, and children—during the terrifying decades of his supreme power. In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research and narrative ?lan, Simon Sebag Montefiore gives us the everyday details of a monstrous life.We see Stalin playing his deadly game of power and paranoia at debauched dinners at Black Sea villas and in the apartments of the Kremlin. We witness first-hand how the dictator and his magnates carried out the Great Terror and the war against the Nazis, and how their families lived in this secret world of fear, betrayal, murder, and sexual degeneracy. Montefiore gives an unprecedented understanding of Stalin’s dictatorship, and a Stalin as human and complicated as he is brutal.

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world’s surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world’s greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin, to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Lenin.

The epic story of Jerusalem told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it.Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence.How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem’s biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women – kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores – who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique chronicle of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.

Based on ten years' astonishing new research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic, dangerous boy became a student priest, romantic poet, gangster mastermind, prolific lover, murderous revolutionary, and the merciless politician who shaped the Soviet Empire in his own brutal image: How Stalin became Stalin.

Winter, 1916: In St Petersburg, Russia on the brink of revolution. Outside the Smolny Institute for Noble Young Ladies, an English governess is waiting for her young charge to be released from school. But so are the Tsar’s secret police… Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her part in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband with whom she has two children. Around her people are disappearing, but her own family is safe. But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences. Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking tale of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism - and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice.

Inspired by a true story, prize-winning historian and acclaimed novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore explores the consequences of forbidden love in this heartbreaking epic of marriage, childhood, danger, and betrayal that unfolds in Stalin's Moscow during the bleak days after World War II.As Moscow celebrates the motherland's glorious victory over the Nazis, shots ring out on the crowded streets. On a nearby bridge, a teenage boy and girl—dressed in traditional nineteenth-century costumes—lie dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy, because these are no ordinary teenagers. As the son and daughter of high-ranking Soviet officials, they attend the most elite school in Moscow. Was it an accident, or murder? Is it a conspiracy against Stalin, or one of his own terrifying intrigues?On Stalin's instructions, a ruthless investigation begins into what becomes known as the Children's Case. Youth across the city are arrested and forced to testify against their friends and their parents. As families are ripped apart, all kinds of secrets come spilling out. Trapped at the center of this witch-hunt are two pairs of illicit lovers, who learn that matters of the heart exact a terrible price. By turns a darkly sophisticated political thriller, a rich historical saga, and a deeply human love story, Montefiore's masterful novel powerfully portrays the terror and drama of Stalin's Russia.

'The black earth was already baking and the sun was just rising when they mounted their horses and rode across the grasslands towards the horizon on fire …’Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis.He enrols in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a desperate mission behind enemy lines.Switching between Benya's war in the grasslands of Southern Russia, and Stalin's plans in the Kremlin, between Benya's intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin's daughter and a journalist also on the Eastern Front, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery and human survival where personal betrayal is a constant companion, and death just a heartbeat away.

From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads.A rich cast of complex characters form the beating heart of the story. Some are well-known leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Thatcher, Obama, Putin and Zelensky. Some are creative, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud, Bowie and Tim Berners-Lee.Others are lesser-known: Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome; King Henry of Haiti; Lady Murasaki, first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen. Here are not just conquerors and queens but prophets, charlatans, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, lovers, wives, husbands and children.This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale - spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama.As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.

INCLUDES NEW MATERIALWRITTEN IN HISTORY celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture and personal life. Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling; some are exquisite works of literature, others brutal, coarse and frankly outrageous; many are erotic, others heartbreaking. The writers vary from Elizabeth I, Rameses the Great and Leonard Cohen to Emmeline Pankhurst, Mandela, Stalin, Michelangelo, Suleiman the Magnificent and unknown people in extraordinary circumstances - from love letters to calls for liberation, declarations of war to reflections on death. In the colourful, accessible style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these letters are essential how they enlighten our past, enrich the way we live now - and illuminate tomorrow.

As a young guardsman, Grigory Potemkin caught the eye of Catherine the Great with a theatrical act of gallantry during the coup that placed her on the throne. Over the next thirty years he would become her lover, co-ruler, and husband in a secret marriage that left room for both to satisfy their sexual appetites. Potemkin proved to be one of the most brilliant statesmen of the eighteenth century, helping Catherine expand the Russian empire and deftly manipulating allies and adversaries from Constantinople to London.This acclaimed biography vividly re-creates Potemkin’s outsized character and accomplishments and restores him to his rightful place as a colossus of the eighteenth century. It chronicles the tempestuous relationship between Potemkin and Catherine, a remarkable love affair between two strong personalities that helped shape the course of history. As he brings these characters to life, Montefiore also tells the story of the creation of the Russian empire. This is biography as it is meant to be: both intimate and panoramic, and bursting with life.

Simon Sebag Montefiore presents the lives of the giants who have made our world. The cast varies from conquerors, poets, kings, empresses and whores to psychopaths, prophets, composers and explorers.Informative, entertaining, inspiring and sometimes horrifying, this is a history of the world that contains the characters everyone should know and the stories no one should forget.

Some devised methods of torture cruel beyond belief, some killed members of their own families, others ordered the murders of millions of innocents; some were admired statesmen, some were maniacs - others simply butchers. Vlad Dracul, prince of Wallachia, impaled his enemies on a forest of bloody stakes; the Byzantine empress Irene had her son's eyes gouged out; the Crusaders massacred 70,000 innocent Muslims and Jews when they took Jerusalem; and, the Mongol warlord Tamerlane built pyramids of human skulls. In the 20th century, Adolf Hitler slaughtered 6 million Jews, Josef Stalin liquidated 25 million Russians, while Mao Zedong was responsible for the deaths of 70 million Chinese. In "101 World Heroes" Simon Sebag Montefiore selected his ultimate heroes and heroines; here he reveals history's dark side."Monsters" presents, in chronological order, compellingly readable portraits of 101 sinister individuals who shared a relish for the brutal exercise of pitiless, unbounded power, a delight in imposing pain and suffering, and a contempt for human life. Many of them - Nero and Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Henry VIII, Lucrezia Borgia and Jack the Ripper, Lenin and Himmler, Charles Manson and Pablo Escobar - are notorious. Others - Byzantine emperor Justinian the Slit-Nose, Pope John XII (who turned the Vatican into a brothel), the 16th century Scots cannibal Sawney Beane, Baron Ungern-Sternberg (who conquered Mongolia in 1920 believing he was Genghis Khan reborn), vampiric Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory, Barbarossa the Ottoman pirate-king - are less familiar.Each biography is accompanied by an article revealing fascinating aspects of those monsters: Sultan Selim the Grim divulges the secret Ottoman methods of royal murder; 'Bloody' Mary evokes the heretic's death at the stake; we travel with Leopold II of Belgium into the 'Heart of Darkness' that was the Belgian Congo; Malawian dictator Dr Banda unveils the strange phenomenon of medical doctors who became murderous tyrants; and, Papa Doc of Haiti reveals the nature of Voodoo. Lavishly illustrated, interspersed with illuminating quotations, both accessible and informative, "Monsters" is a Who's Who of the cruel and murderous, the rapacious and depraved, and a gripping compendium of stories, characters and indispensable lessons from history that no one should forget - and everyone should know.

Bestselling author and master storyteller Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping, moving and highly acclaimed novels of love and war, betrayal, espionage and terror - gathered here for the first time in one compelling volume.Sashenka It is winter 1916 in the tsar’s wartime capital St Petersburg and the beautiful and headstrong Sashenka Zeitlin plays a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. Twenty years on, she is a perfect Communist wife and mother who risks everything for a forbidden love affair with a pleasure loving writer which will have devastating consequences. Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heartbreaking story of passion, betrayal, and unexpected heroism.Red Sky at Noon Imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion to fight the invading Nazis and enrols in a cavalry unit of criminals and Cossacks sent on a desperate ride across the sweltering grasslands of southern Russia. Switching between the cruel war and Stalin's secrets in the Kremlin, Benya’s affair with an Italian nurse is the heart of this epic story of passion, bravery and survival where betrayal and death are constant companions, – and love, however fleeting and doomed, offers a glimmer of redemption.One Night in Winter As Stalin and his courtiers celebrate victory over Hitler, the teenage children of two of Russia's top leaders are found dead. An investigation begins in their elite school, teenagers and children are arrested and forced to testify against their friends and their parents. The terrifying inquiry soon unveils illicit love affairs and family secrets in a world where the smallest mistakes can be punished by death.

Os Romanov foram a mais bem-sucedida dinastia dos tempos modernos.Como foi possível uma família transformar um reino débil e arruinado, devido à guerra civil, no maior império do mundo?E como deitaram tudo a perder?Esta é a história de vinte czares e czarinas, alguns tocados pelo génio, outros pela loucura, mas todos inspirados pela sagrada autocracia e ambição imperial.Esta arrebatadora narrativa revela de forma magistral a família Romanov - o seu mundo secreto de poder ilimitado, a implacável construção de um império, ensombrado por conspirações palacianas, rivalidades familiares, assassinatos, decadência e excessos sexuais, a influência dos cortesãos, aventureiros, revolucionários e poetas.É apresentado um vasto painel de figuras desde Ivan, o Terrível, a Tolstoy, da rainha Vitória a Lenine, de Pedro, o Grande, a Catarina, a Grande, até Nicolau II e Alexandra que, apesar do seu casamento feliz, se revelaram incapazes de salvar a Rússia da Primeira Guerra Mundial e da Revolução.Baseado numa aprofundada pesquisa de arquivos a que nunca tinha havido acesso, esta é uma obra fascinante e indispensável para conhecer a história empolgante de triunfo e de tragédia, de amor e de morte, de uma família e de um imenso país - um estudo universal do poder e um retrato essencial do império que define a Rússia atual.Uma obra de leitura obrigatória que a Presença publica em dois volumes.

In "101 World Heroes", bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore presents his personal selection of the 100 most heroic figures from the pages of world history. Emperors and queens, soldiers and statesmen, religious leaders and philosophers rub shoulders with composers and poets, scientists and explorers, artists and storytellers from three millennia. All are united not just by what they did in their own lifetimes, but also by the enduring legacy they have bequeathed to the sum of human experience and achievement. The central spine of the book consists of a series of narrative entries recording the lives and legacies of the 101 heroes and heroines. Each entry is accompanied by a brief essay opening a window on the times in which he or she lived. Thus the life of Egypt's greatest pharaoh, Ramses II, is accompanied by an essay looking at the gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt, while the entry for Admiral Horatio Nelson explores the tactics and gunnery of a ship-of-the-line. The book is illustrated throughout with maps, diagrams, paintings and photographs, and an appendix celebrates a further 100 individual deeds of heroism with a special claim to immortality. The heroes include: Ramses the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, King Solomon, Elizabeth I of England, Winston Churchill, The Buddha, Tokugawa Ieyasu, M. K. Gandhi, Aristotle, William Shakespeare, F.D. Roosevelt, Alexander the Great, Thomas Jefferson, David Ben Gurion, Hannibal, Voltaire, George Orwell, Jesus, Napoleon Bonaparte, Elvis Presley, Marcus Aurelius, Horatio Nelson, J. F. Kennedy, Mohammed, Duke of Wellington, John Paul II, Charlemagne, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Leo Tolstoy, and Charles Darwin.

Os Romanov foram a mais bem-sucedida dinastia dos tempos modernos. Como foi possível uma família transformar um reino débil e arruinado, devido à guerra civil, no maior império do mundo? e como deitaram tudo a perder? Esta é a história de vinte czares e czarinas, alguns tocados pelo génio, outros pela loucura, mas todos inspirados pela sagrada autocracia e ambição imperial. Esta arrebatadora narrativa revela de forma magistral a família Romanov - o seu mundo secreto de poder ilimitado, a implacável construção de um império, ensombrado por conspirações palacianas, rivalidades familiares, assassinatos, decadência e excessos sexuais, a influência dos cortesãos, aventureiros, revolucionários e poetas. É apresentado um vasto painel de figuras desde Ivan, o Terrível, a Tolstoi, da rainha Vitória a Lenine, de Pedro, o Grande, a Catarina, a Grande, até Nicolau II e Alexandra que, apesar do seu casamento feliz, se revelaram incapazes de salvar a Rússia da Primeira Guerra Mundial e da Revolução.Baseado numa aprofundada pesquisa de arquivos a que nunca tinha havido acesso, esta é uma obra fascinante e indispensável para conhecer a história empolgante de triunfo e de tragédia, de amor e de morte - um estudo universal do poder e um retrato essencial do império que ainda define a Rússia atual. Uma obra de leitura obrigatória que a Presença publica em dois volumes.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, one of our most popular historians, and also presenter of BBC television series on Istanbul, Rome and Jerusalem, selects the essential cast of dramatic characters who built, destroyed or changed the three great Holy Cities. The creators of Istanbul: from the murderous visionary Constantine the Great to the ultimate power couple, Justinian and his burlesque-dancer-turned-empress Theodora, to Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxelana, all the way to Ataturk. In Jerusalem: from Herod the Great, who killed his beloved wife and three sons, to the great Crusader queen Melisende and the Arab conqueror Saladin. In Rome, from psychotic Caligula and the philosopher Marcus Aurelius to the megalomanical seductress Marozia, the Borgias and Mussolini.These are stories and characters that everyone should know and no one should forget.

Philip Roth meets Evelyn Waugh in a blackly comic portrayal of prep-school adolescence. Montefiore creates a young anti-hero as hilarious as Just William, as monstrous as Stalin himself, whose rite of passage shows what happens when a game of power grows into a dangerous obsession.

سایمن سیبیگ مانتیفوری، پژوهشگر و مورخ انگلیسی، کتاب استالین جوان را در سال 2007 در پی موفقیت گسترده کتاب قبلی اش، استالین؛ دربار تزار سرخ، چاپ و منتشر کرد. استالین؛ دربار تزار سرخ در سال 2003 چاپ و بلافاصله به یکی از پرفروش ترین کتاب های تاریخی در انگلستان مبدل شد. این کتاب همچنین در سال 2004 موفق به کسب جایزه بهترین کتاب تاریخ در انگستان شد. استالین؛ دربار تزار سرخ عمدتا متمرکز بر دوران حکومت جوزف استالین بر اتحاد شوروی است. مانتیفوری با عرضه کتاب استالین جوان در واقع شرح تاریخی خود از استالین و زمینه های به قدرت رسیدن وی و یارانش را تکمیل کرده است.استالین جوان عمدتا با یک نظم کرونولوژیک و در قالب روایی مبتنی بر واقعیت های تاریخی صرف نوشته شده است.کتاب استالین جوان قبل از اینکه با یک نظم کرونولوژیک آغاز شود، خواننده را ابتدا درگیر مهم ترین فراز در زندگی استالین جوان می کند و آن شرح جذابی است از ماجرای سرقت بزرگ بانک در تفلیس. کتاب استالین؛ دربار تزار سرخ نیز قبل از پرداختن به شرح زندگی استالین به عنوان یک دیکتاتور، با شرح یکی از پرکشش ترین اپیزود ها در زندگی استالین دیکتاتور(خودکشی همسرش در 1932) آغاز می شود. به این ترتیب، کتاب استالین جوان حوادث زندگی استالین (یا سوسو) را از بدو تولد تا سال 1917، زمان آغاز به قدرت رسیدن استالین، در بر می گیرد و کتاب استالین؛ دربار تزار سرخ به حوادث زندگی استالین از 1917 تا زمان مرگش در سال 1953 می پردازد

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME I : OS BONS TEMPOS: ESTALINE E NÁDIA, 1878-1932

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME II:OS ALEGRES COMPANHEIROS: ESTALINE E KIROV, 1932-1934NO LIMIAR DO PESADELO, 1934-1936A MATANÇA: IEZHOV, O ANÃO ENVENENADOR, 1937-1938

Simon Sebag Montefiore, one of our pre-eminent historians, presents the lives of some of the most influential figures in the History of the Middle East. In short profiles, spanning the centuries, he provides key insights in the characters who shaped the region, and the wider modern world. This is an exclusive ebook edition, a preview of the author's forthcoming work Titans of History.

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME III:MATANÇA: A CHEGADA DE BERIA, 1938-1939“O GRANDE JOGO”: HITLER E ESTALINE, 1939-1941

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME VI:O TIGRE COXO, 1949-1953

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME IV:GUERRA: O GÉNIO TRAPALHÃO, 1941-1942GUERRA: O GÉNIO TRIUNFANTE, 1942-1945

A extraordinária história do ditador soviético e dos homens e mulheres que o mantiveram no poder por quase trinta anos, numa obra vencedora do History Book of the Year Award, atribuído pela British Book Awards, em 2004.Esta é a verdadeira história de Estaline, vista de dentro, cheia de revelações. Que nos relata como a morte da mulher do ditador foi disfarçada - terá sido suicídio? Ou como os líderes soviéticos e as suas famílias viveram dentro das paredes do Kremlin. Ou, ainda, o relato detalhado do encontro entre Estaline, Roosevelt e Churchill. E como de facto morreram dez milhões de pessoas.Informações baseadas em novos materiais dos arquivos de Estaline, tornados públicos em 2000, em entrevistas com testemunhas e numa profunda pesquisa de Moscovo ao Mar Negro.VOLUME V:O PERIGOSO JOGO DA SUCESSÃO, 1945-1949

Le premier tome de la biographie référente de Staline, depuis sa consécration comme " chef suprême " en 1929 à l'entrée en guerre de l'URSS en 1941.Livre d'histoire de l'année 2004 en Angleterre." Ce livre fait la lumière sur les complexités du stalinisme. Livre de l'année. " The Times" Un des rares livres récents sur le stalinisme qui sera lu dans les années à venir. " The Guardian La vie privée de Staline est longtemps restée mystérieuse. Grâce à l'ouverture de ses archives personnelles, Simon Sebag Montefiore offre enfin un portrait inédit, saisissant et intime de l'homme et de sa cour. Dans ce premier volume, il retrace l'ascension du " chef suprême ",depuis sa consécration en 1929 jusqu'à l'invasion allemande en juin 1941, en passant par les grandes purges et l'assassinat de Trotski. D'Ejov, le nain bisexuel, à Beria, le génie dépravé, Montefiore fait défiler sous nos yeux cette étrange caste de meurtriers fanatiques ou aventuriers,qui, de leurs datchas ou du Kremlin, jouent avec leurs vies et celles des autres, manipulés par un tyran à la fois cruel et fascinant.Best-seller mondial, cet ouvrage magistral a reçu en 2004 le prix du livre d'histoire de l'année décerné par le British Book Awards.Simon Sebag Montefiore est spécialiste de l'histoire de la Russie. Il est l'auteur, entre autres, du Jeune Staline." Ce que nous avons là, c'est une histoire sociale de l'enfer. "John Leonard, Harper's"Cette biographie du maître du Kremlin, en deux tomes, se lit avec passion, mariant habilement les faits historiques et les Mémoires des contemporains, portée par une écriture dont la puissance romanesque fait de ce large pan de l'histoire contemporaine un récit dense et vivant. Primé par le British Book Award, cette somme est la fresque fascinante et terrifiante d'une période sur laquelle la Russie d'aujourd'hui peine à revenir."Télérama , 27 Novembre - 03 Décembre 10" Il y a huit ans, Simon Sebag Montefiore, un historien britannique, spécialiste de la Russie, avait publié à Londres une remarquable biographie de Staline. Traduite en 25 langues, parue en français en 2055, cette somme - ouvrage de référence, mais d'une lecture aisée - est désormais disponible au format poche."Jean Sévillia, Le Figaro Magazine , 05 Février 11" Certainement le livre le mieux écrit et le plus documenté sur Staline et son entourage entre 1929 et 1953. "Le Point - Historia , Hors-série été 11

Na nova edição, devidamente atualizada para o Expresso, Montefiore explica ao que vai no prefácio: “Noutros tempos, Jerusalém foi considerada o centro do mundo, observação que é hoje mais verdadeira do que nunca, porque a cidade é o ponto de convergência de um combate entre as religiões abraâmicas, o santuário dos fundamentalismos cristãos, judaico e islâmico, um campo de batalha estratégico para o choque entre as civilizações, uma linha de confronto do ateísmo com a fé, um foco de atração do fascínio secular, objeto de vertiginosas conspirações e de uma estonteante produção de mitos por via da internet, bem como palco para as câmaras de todo o mundo nesta nossa era de permanente atenção às notícias”.