Simon Sebag Montefiore Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Contents List of Illustrations Stalin Family Tree Maps Introduction and Acknowledgements xvii List of Characters xxii Prologue: The Holiday Dinner: 8 November 1932 PART ONE 1.. The Georgian and the Schoolgirl .. 2.. The Kremlin Family .. 3 - The Charmer .. 4.. Famine and the Country Set: Stalin at the Weekend .. 5.. Holidays and Hell: the Politburo at the Seaside .. 6.. Trains Full of Corpses: Love, Death and Hysteria .. 7.. Stalin the Intellectual .. PART TWO 8.. The Funeral .. 9.. The Omnipotent Widower and his Loving Family: Sergo the Bolshevik Prince ... 10... Spoiled Victory: Kirov, the Plot and the Seventeenth Congress ... 11... Assassination of the Favourite ... PART THREE 12... "I'm Orphaned": the Connoisseur of Funerals ... 13... A Secret Friendship: The Rose of Novgorod ... 14... The Dwarf Rises; Casanova Falls ... 15... The Tsar Rides the Metro ... 16... Take Your Partners; Mount Your Prisoners: the Show Trial ... PART FOUR 17... The Executioner: Beria's Poison and Bukharin's Dosage ... 18... Sergo: Death of a "Perfect Bolshevik" ... 19... The Massacre of Generals, Fall of Yagoda, and Death of a Mother ... 20... Blood Bath by Numbers ... 21... "The Blackberry" at Work and Play ... 22... Bloody Shirtsleeves: the Intimate Circle of Murder ... 23... Social Life in the Terror: the Wives and Children of the Magnates ... PART FIVE 24... Stalin's Jewesses and the Family in Danger ... 25... Beria and the Weariness of Hangmen ... 26... The Tragedy and Depravity of the Yezhovs ... 27... Death of the Stalin Family: a Strange Proposal and the Housekeeper ... PART SIX 28... The Carve-up of Europe: Molotov, Ribbentrop and Stalin's Jewish Question ... 29... The Murder of the Wives ... 30... Molotov Cocktails: the Winter War and Kulik's Wife ... 31... Molotov Meets Hitler: Brinkmanship and Delusion ... 32... The Countdown: .. June .... ... PART SEVEN 33... Optimism and Breakdown ... 34... "Ferocious as a Dog": Zhdanov and the Siege of Leningrad ... 35... "Can You Hold Moscow?" ... 36... Molotov in London, Mekhlis in The Crimea, Khrushchev in Collapse ... 37... Churchill Visits Stalin: Marlborough vs.Wellington ... 38... Stalingrad and the Caucasus: Beria and Kaganovich at War ... PART EIGHT 39... The Supremo of Stalingrad ... 40... Sons and Daughters: Stalin and the Politburo's Children at War ... 41... Stalin's Song Contest ... 42... Teheran: Roosevelt and Stalin ... 43... The Swaggering Conqueror: Yalta and Berlin ... PART NINE 44... The Bomb ... 45... Beria: Potentate, Husband, Father, Lover, Killer, Rapist ... 46... A Night in the Nocturnal Life of Joseph Vissarionovich:Tyranny by Movies and Dinners ... 47... Molotov's Chance: "You'll Do Anything When You're Drunk!" ... 48... Zhdanov the Heir and Abakumov's Bloody Carpet ... 49... The Eclipse of Zhukov and the Looters of Europe: the Imperial Elite ... 50... "The Zionists Have Pulled One Over You!" ... 51... A Lonely Old Man on Holiday ... 52... Two Strange Deaths: the Yiddish Actor and Heir Apparent ... PART TEN 53... Mrs. Molotov's Arrest ... 54... Murder and Marriage: the Leningrad Case ... 55... Mao, Stalin's Birthday and the Korean War ... 56... The Midget and the Killer Doctors: Beat, Beat and Beat Again! ... 57... Blind Kittens and Hippopotamuses: the Destruction of the Old Guard ... 58... "I Did Him In!": the Patient and his Trembling Doctors ... POSTSCRIPT.......... Source Notes ... Select Bibliography ... Index ...