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Lenin the Dictator

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Lenin the Dictator

By: Victor Sebestyen
Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
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Summary

 Victor Sebestyen's intimate biography is the first major work in English for nearly two decades on one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. In Russia to this day Lenin inspires adulation. Everywhere, he continues to fascinate as a man who made history, and who created a new kind of state that would later be imitated by nearly half the countries in the world.

Lenin believed that the 'the political is the personal', and while in no way ignoring his political life, Sebestyen's focus will be on Lenin the man - a man who loved nature almost as much as he loved making revolution, and whose closest ties and friendships were with women. The long-suppressed story of his ménage a trois with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a different character to the coldly one-dimensional figure of legend.

Told through the prism of Lenin's key relationships, Sebestyen's lively biography casts a new light the Russian Revolution, one of the great turning points of modern history.

Read by Jonathan Aris

(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group Ltd©2017 Victor Sebestyen Historical Politics & Activism Politics & Government Presidents & Heads of State Russia Imperialism Socialism Soviet Union War Capitalism
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Critic reviews

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 (Francis Wheen)
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)
The attention to detail is flawless (Alex Larman)
The story of the Bolshevik revolution is fascinating in several ways, and Sebestyen does a good job of telling it ... entertaining (Tibor Fischer)
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)
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)
Victor Sebestyen does an impressive job of telling Lenin's life story ... it is a highly readable overview (Evan Mawdsley)
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)
An enthralling portrait of one of the key figures of the 20th century
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)
All stars
Most relevant
Great story with perfect level of detail - not too much to make it boring and not too little to make it too casual

Impressive Package

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Well written and researched, Lenin was an appalling dictator who set the stage for what was to come for the next 100 years in Russia

Excellent book, well read

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Brilliant from start to finish. I could not put this book down and raced through it!

Amazing!

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I have always been fascinated by the Russian Revolution, which would not have ended the way it did without Lenin. This was a very detailed account of the man who started the Communist Cancer that has spread throughout the world in one form or another.

I was quite surprised to learn of the sheer brutality of the Tsarist regime, and how implicated Nicholas was. If you want a deep dive into the man revered and loved by so many and equally hated - this is the book.

Deep Dive Into Lenin

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I thought this was a very interesting account of Lenin's life, I learned so much. His wife Nadezhda was a very special kind of lady who stood by Lenin until the end, and I could see how much Lenin loved and respected his wife. In principal I think the communist idea was a good one for equality and a much fairer system to all, sadly it became a brutal totalitarian rule of fear, which hurt the Russian people even more. It involved too much loss of life and the murder of Nicholas II and his family was so sad. It's an interesting piece of history and I am very much drawn to the history of Russia. I also recommend Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore and also an excellent novel called The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, it was actually this novel that flared up my interest in Russia, and since then I have listened to so many on Audible. I thank the author Victor Sebestyen for his meticulous research and hard work in writing this book, and to Jonathan Aris for reading this so well. An enjoyable read. 📚

Lenin's Life, an Interesting Piece of History

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