Review - Young Stalin (Simon Sebag Montefiore)

A generally interesting, readable book that gives an interesting and seemingly well-researched pop history/biography look at Stalin's life before he came to power.

My greatest complaint is that the author seems to lean heavily on stereotypes to characterize the people he talks about--the Svanidze sisters are "Rachvelians from Racha, famous for its placid and loving beauties," the reputation of Georgians in general as being passionate and hotheaded, etc. This is fine, in moderation, and does provide some context for the way many of these people would have been seen in an Imperial Russian and, later, a Soviet context--but these stereotypes are invoked with surprising consistency, sometimes resulting in contradictory descriptions of people and places.

It's enjoyable, and provides a look at Stalin's early biographical context that may not always feature in more conventional accounts of his time in power. Personally I would have favored both a broader and more in-depth treatment of the social, cultural, political, etc. context of the Caucasus in the late 19th and early 20th century (partly just because it's a time period and region of particular interest to me--more interesting to me, personally, than a catalogue of Stalin's affairs), but as the book is a biography of Stalin, it makes sense that it would be focused more exclusively on its own subject.

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Reading Challenges for 2021

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Undirected Reading

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