Every Russian emperor from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin knows a leader and his security agencies must never be parted.… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Putin regards Stalin as a great tsar; he is a great tsar. Asked who the worst tsars were, he said Nicholas II… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I am a passionate nonfinisher. Life is too short, and there are too many great books to read, so if I lose… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
The vanishing of David Tang is like the unthinkable diappearance of a magnificent palace on a mythical mountaintop. He was a dreammaker,… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
With popular rulers, the wife can become the guardian of their greatness: Peter the Great was succeeded by his wife, Catherine I.… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I'm an enormous fan of American literature, and especially the great novels of Larry McMurtry, 'Lonesome Dove,' Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
In 1942, the Germans were running out of fuel. They were advancing so fast across the grasslands, the hot grasslands of south… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Russia's first major intervention began in 1768, when Catherine the Great went to war with the Ottomans, and Count Alexei Orlov, the… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
It's the mix of the trivial and the great events that make up history. It's the low things about high people that… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Writing fiction is very different to writing non-fiction. I love writing novels, but on history books, like my biographies of Stalin or… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Trump wants to be the first American tsar. With his hero worship of Putin, his admiration for the apparent omnipotence of the Kremlin, schoolboyish… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." --- Edward Gibbon” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
Every Russian emperor from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin knows a leader and his security agencies must never be parted. His safety… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Sex fills a few hours of our lives yet those precious minutes count for more than months and years” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Iraq was already in the grip of a bloody insurgency against British rule. Churchill therefore called a conference in Cairo to hand over a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the last years… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
I am a passionate nonfinisher. Life is too short, and there are too many great books to read, so if I lose interest or… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
There is a view of Russian exceptionalism, that they are a unique civilisation, a view right since Ivan the Terrible that Russia is a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
The political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
Mr. Putin presents himself as a czar - and like any czar, he fears revolution above all else. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
'Daddy used to be a Georgian,' Stalin's son, Vasily, once said. Actually, the dictator didn't truly become Russian; he remained Georgian culturally. Yet he… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Once in power, Stalin’s campaign to succeed Lenin required a legitimate heroic career which he did not possess because of his experience in what… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
