"The best of all the books this year - and highly significant in terms of genuine new research - was Miklos Kun`s Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, a splendid, subtle and deeply researched picture of the dictator and his circle, filled with new photographs. Kun manages to give a much more intimate and true picture of the workings of the inner circle: among several gems, he quotes Stalin`s correspondence with his 10-year-old daughter Svetlana, who cheekily quizzes him on power and sends him orders signed "Svetlana Stalina the Boss".
-- Financial Times

"Kun is the grandson of Bela Kun, who was the leader of the nascent Hungarian Communist party and the dominant figure of the ill-fated Communist regime of 1919. Also, more importantly, Bela Kun was a refugee in Moscow for almost two decades, and ultimately a victim of Stalin`s purges. Miklos Kun`s family connections enabled him to collect a valuable archive and in the course of the 1990s to find and interview some of the diminishing number of people who knew Stalin." - The Russian Review

"The book contains a number of fascinating revelations; in particular, it offers a wealth of new information about Stalin`s persecution of the families of his two wives, Yekaterina Svanidze and Nadezhda Alliluyeva. An additional strength is the inclusion of over 300 photos from the collecction of David King. ... this impressive book is recommended for all collections with interests in Russian history." - Choice

"Die persönliche Prägung des eigenen Lebens durch die mächtigen Stalin-Legenden haben den ungarischen, 1946 in der Sowjetunion geborenen Historiker dazu bewogen, seine eigene Stalin-Biographie vorzulegen, gleichsam um sich selbst von der immer noch herrschenden Mythen zu befreien. Herausgekommen is dabei ein sehr persönliches, engagiertes, um Aufklärung bemühtes Buch in Bildbandformat mit unzähligen Abbildungen von Stalin und seinen Weggefährten. Im Mittelpunkt steht das Anliegen, die offiziellen, von der `Beria-Bande` zusammentragenen Daten und die offizielle Biographie des `Kratkij kurs` mit der Wahrheit zu konfrontieren". - Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas


This exceptional volume of oral history contains exciting new information about Stalin`s actual and political `family`, the political Mafia and the clans around him. The author has interviewed key politicians who survived the Stalin era, including officials of the KGB and the Komsomol, as well as people who had personal contact with the dictator as secretaries or interpreters. Kun`s special expertise and his access to archival sources in Russia have resulted in a work revealing jealously guarded secrets.

In addition to the interviews and hitherto unpublished correspondence between Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Mikoyan, Zhdanov and others, the book also contains a fascinating selection from a private collection of photos of Stalin, his family members, and various political actors of the period. Extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index of names and photos add to the value of the volume.