Young Stalin: The Child is Father to the Criminal Genocidal Monster

Young Stalin follows on my reading of Robert Service's A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin [or rather interrupts it] which in turn was begat by Stalin: In the Court of the Red Tsar, one of the great history books of this or any century.

Montefiore & Service rapidly availed themselves of a window into KGB archives & other Russian treasure troves of information on arguably the most violent history any western country has undergone in the last millenium.

And if Montefiore is correct that Vladimir Putin has Stalin's library of 20K volumes, full of the autodidact's marginalia in multi-colored crayons, the Wolf Among Men [Stalin would doodle wolf-heads, like his colleague in genocide Adolf Hitler, while in long Committee meetings] will continue to affect Russian history. Indeed, Montefiore in his scary article in Time's "Man of the Year" article on Vladimir, stresses that Vlad's interest in poisoning, among other oddities, may stem from Stalin's mastery of the arcane art that Georgians picked up from their Iranian masters in the 18th century.

But Young Stalin amazes with its sourcing, something which could dry up instantaneously if Russia reverts to its characteristic autocratic secrecy & closes its archives. But Montefiore has already painted word pictures of a titanic force of nature whose poetry is printed in one wonderful Ode to the Moon, evokes Guillaume Apollinaire, another forceful artist, IMHO. Stalin had his moon ode published in an anthology of Georgian poetry in 1916 under a nom de plume of Soselo. After attaining Politburo membership, he suppressed his poetry, but had a reverence for artists such that he phoned Pasternak to ask if Mandelstam was "a genius" before exiling Osip to an early death!!! He saved Pasternak from the Terror, calling him a "Cloud Dweller."

Again and again, weird parallels with Hitler, from wolf-fetishism to artistic skills/sponsorship to murderous rages all make for an uncanny biography. Every page reveals what a colossal crime spree Bolshevism inflicted on the Russian people---largely due to this young man's fanatical quest for power & self-education.

If Stalin continues to fascinate Putin as Montefiore avers, we should read both Montefiore & Service to get a glimpse of the future----and IT DOESN'T WORK!!!