Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

He is a man who guided a revolution that would be felt across the rest of the 20th century, and he is one of the few people who can be identified with one name, and that is Lenin. Victor Sebestyen attempts to detangle the myths, inaccuracies, and other things that have piled up around Lenin’s life and give us a biography that gives a critical look at his life; not just a one-sided look. And he succeeds as well as one can, especially with so much that was hidden for so long and with so many biographies taking a political stance on him as well. Mr. Sebestyen digs into the man himself, what made him tick, and more importantly what made him want to overthrow the Tsar and in a sense become a dictator himself. These are two important areas that could be further explored by scholars, especially since the fall of Communism, but frankly other biographies just gloss over it most of the time. But Mr. Sebestyen takes the time to really dig deep and to provide us answers without having a strong left-leaning or right-leaning stance on his subject. If you read one biography of Lenin, make it this one.