Yet as the poetic and singing talents suggested, he was not without tenderness. At 14 he was awarded a scholarship to the Georgian Orthodox Seminary of Tiflis, Georgia, where he wrote poetry, sang in the choir and at weddings – and became involved in the Marxist movement.Īs the mastermind of kidnappings, bank robberies and murder of certain individuals unfortunate enough to get in his way, he soon showed himself as a man without mercy.
His (presumed) father was a hard drinker who beat his wife and child. Born Josef Djugashvili in poverty in 1878 and known as Soso during his childhood, he was the only surviving child of his parents' marriage – if one chooses not to believe the rumours that he was born on the wrong side of the wedding ring to his promiscuous mother. Yet as this biography of the latter's early years shows, he was a complex man of many facets. If Hitler was the most evil person in history within our generation, Stalin ran him a close second. Summary: A biography overing the early life of arguably one of the most evil persons in history within our generation, that goes a long way towards helping the reader understand how he became the man he did, and a book likely to remain essential reading on its subject for some years to come.
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