Lenin

Sebestyen's book on Lenin is a model political biography for a wide audience: historical accuracy is balanced with narrative vivacity and suspense, without the author having to resort to psychological speculation or pompous generalisations. In Sebestyen's portrait, the supreme homo politicus is presented in full, including his primitive or monstrous traits, but without grandiose ideological judgements. Sebestyen is by no means an apologist for Lenin, yet he has enough respect for his subject to avoid creating a two-dimensional, accusatory caricature.

This multi-dimensional and highly readable portrait captures not only Lenin's life journey and personality, including his better qualities and his darker sides, but also places them within the context of Russian history in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century. In particular, it covers the gradual but profound collapse of the Tsarist regime, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Civil War, and the Red Terror.

The book is published in a translation by Martin Pokorný, featuring an afterword by Igor Lukeš.