An
excellent, original and compelling portrait of Lenin as man and leader -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of
STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSARRichly readable ... enthralling but appalling -- Francis Wheen * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
Victor Sebestyen brings the man's complexities to life in
Lenin the Dictator,
balancing personality with politics in succinct and readable prose ... Sebestyen describes particularly keenly how this ruthless, domineering, often vicious man depended on three women to sustain him -- David Reynolds * NEW STATESMAN *
The attention to detail is
flawless -- Alex Larman * THE OBSERVER *
The story of the Bolshevik revolution is
fascinating in several ways, and Sebestyen does a good job of telling it ... entertaining -- Tibor Fischer * STANDPOINT *
Can first-rate history read like a thriller? With
Lenin the Dictator the journalist Victor Sebestyen has pulled off this rarest of feats. How did he do it? Start with
a Russian version of House of Cards and behold Vladimir Ilyich Lenin pre-empt Frank Underwood's cynicism and murderous ambition by 100 years. Add
meticulous research by digging into Soviet archives, including those locked away until recently. Plow through 9.5 million words of Lenin's
Collected Works. Finally, apply
a scriptwriter's knack for drama and suspense that needs no ludicrous cliffhangers to enthrall history buffs and professionals alike -- Josef Joffe * NEW YORK TIMES *
In this new biography, Victor Sebestyen gives
a vivid and rounded picture of Lenin the man ... Sebestyen brings to the task a gift for narrative and for describing his rich cast of characters -- Margaret MacMillan * THE OLDIE *
Victor Sebestyen does an impressive job of telling Lenin's life story ... it is a
highly readable overview -- Evan Mawdsley * BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE *
In his engagingly written biography the author ... captures all the drama of Lenin's leadership against
a background of imperial collapse, the ravages of war and the building of a dictatorship ... the Bolshevik leader emerges from these pages as a man unencumbered by critical self-awareness, by doubts or by any moral conflict over the extraordinary costs inflicted on others by the pursuit of his revolutionary goals
-- Daniel Beer * GUARDIAN *
An enthralling portrait of one of the key figures of the 20th century * MAIL ON SUNDAY Summer Books
*
A fresh and powerful portrait of Lenin, and at just the right time. As Bolshevik ideas and tactics return to world politics, Victor Sebestyen focuses our attention on the man who invented them -- Anne Applebaum, author of RED FAMINE: STALIN'S WAR ON UKRAINE
Page-turning and enlightening -- Victoria Hislop
An excellent new biography -- Saul David * EVENING STANDARD *
In this insightful biography, Sebestyen examines the brilliant but ruthless personality whom journalists glorified and shows why the dictatorial government that Lenin imposed on his country made a nationwide cult of personality inevitable ... Readers see a great historical tragedy play out, however, as Russia's dying Red Tsar leaves his most bloody-minded lieutenant in prime position to take over the brutal police state he has forged. A compelling portrait of an epoch-making figure -- Bryce Christensen * BOOKLIST starred review *
An accessible, fair and marvellously written biography that reinforces what we have learned in the past three decades ... For anyone interested in an introduction to the world's greatest revolutionary that draws on the latest research, Mr Sebestyen's Lenin would be the place to start -- Douglas Smith * WALL STREET JOURNAL *