Paperback edition of the prequel to the internationally bestselling biography "Stalin: Court Of The Red Tsar", which sold over 170,000 copies. Born into poverty, exceptional in his studies, this charismatic but dangerous boy was hailed as a romantic poet, trained as a priest, but found his mission as a fanatical revolutionary. Montefiore shows how the murderous paranoia and gangsterism of the criminal underworld, combined with pitiless ideology, taught Stalin how to triumph in the Kremlin. 'What Montefiore gives us is a richly and fluently documented study of the chief terrorist in the making' Robert Service, "Sunday Times"

Vital prequel to the internationally best-selling biography STALIN: COURT OF THE RED TSAR