Victor Sebestyen is the acclaimed author of TWELVE DAYS, REVOLUTION 1989 and 1946. He was born in Budapest, and was a child when his family left Hungary as refugees. As a journalist, he has worked for numerous British newspapers, including the EVENING STANDARD, DAILY MAIL and THE TIMES. He reported widely from Eastern Europe when Communism collapsed and the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. He covered the wars in former Yugoslavia and the breakup of the Soviet Union. At the EVENING STANDARD he was foreign editor, media editor and chief leader writer. He is an associate editor of NEWSWEEK.
An excellent, original and compelling portrait of Lenin as man and
leader
*Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED
TSAR*
Richly readable ... enthralling but appalling
*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
*NEW STATESMAN*
The attention to detail is flawless
*THE OBSERVER*
The story of the Bolshevik revolution is fascinating in several
ways, and Sebestyen does a good job of telling it ...
entertaining
*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
*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
*THE OLDIE*
Victor Sebestyen does an impressive job of telling Lenin's life
story ... it is a highly readable overview
*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
*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
*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
*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
*WALL STREET JOURNAL*
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