120 Quotes by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Soviet Union was designed for Muscovite rule, not for division into independent republics. Yet the latter is exactly what happened in 1991 - and the Kremlin has never accepted it.

Saddam Hussein admired, studied, and copied Stalin, the paragon of modern dictators.

'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 embraced the imperial mission of the Russian people.

Gay weddings will be remembered as Tony Blair's greatest achievement!

As colonial puppeteer and successful restorer of Russia as imperial superpower, Mr. Putin is Stalin's consummate heir.

Moses Montefiore loved Jerusalem, lived for Jerusalem, and even made it our family motto. A Zionist before the word was invented, he believed in the sacred idea of Jewish return as a religious Jew's duty, and in Jewish statehood.

While most know the young Stalin was a seminarian, few realize that he was also a Georgian patriot, a published romantic poet.

I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own.

Believe it or not, some Western analysts in the 1930s insisted that Stalin was a 'moderate,' controlled by extremists like the secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov.