“To make a Frankenstein monster of a complex character like Stalin woul...” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Quote

“To make a Frankenstein monster of a complex character like Stalin would have been too simplistic. I wanted to show who he was and, if you like, how he happened.”

“Saddam Hussein admired, studied, and copied Stalin, the paragon of modern dictators.”

“Regarding themselves as irreplaceable, both Lenin and Stalin tried in different ways to destroy their successors - Lenin through a testament that attacked Stalin and Trotsky, Stalin through purges culminating in the Doctors' Plot of 1953.”