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There have been many biographies of Stalin, but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag Montefiore, acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Great's lover, prime minister and general, Potemkin, has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not oinly ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria, but men and women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge.
'This account f the man who carried Lenin's death mask with him wherever her went, hanging it like an icon in a suitably conspicuous place lit by a candle, is more concerned with detail than dates, and for this reason is easier to digest than most historical biographies....This is not a book for the squeamish, but John Nettles's genial tones manage to keep it in the PG rather than the X-certificate rating.'
Guardian
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