Victor Sebestyen's Books

Lenin

The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Lenin

The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

By: Victor Sebestyen

Victor Sebestyen's riveting biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin—the first major biography in English in nearly two decades—is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century but also a fascinating portrait of Lenin the man. Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Sebestyen traces the story from Lenin's early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenin's life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife, and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. With Lenin's personal papers and those of other leading political figures now available, Sebestyen gives is new details that bring to life the dramatic and gripping story of how Lenin seized power in a coup and ran his revolutionary state. The product of a violent, tyrannical, and corrupt Russia, he chillingly authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater ideal. An old comrade what had once admired him said that Lenin "desired the good . . . but created evil." This included his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to horrifying new heights. In Lenin, Victor Sebestyen has written a brilliant portrait of this dictator as a complex and ruthless figure, and he also brings to light important new revelations about the Russian Revolution, a pivotal point in modern history. (With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs)

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Page Count

675

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101871644

ISBN 13

9781101871645

Twelve Days

Revolution 1956. How the Hungarians tried to topple their Soviet masters

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Twelve Days

Revolution 1956. How the Hungarians tried to topple their Soviet masters

By: Victor Sebestyen

The defining moment of the Cold War: 'The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.' (Richard Nixon) The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world's superpowers. The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades. The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa's Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom.

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Page Count

408

Publisher

Hachette UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0297865439

ISBN 13

9780297865438

1946

The Making of the Modern World

By: Victor Sebestyen

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1946

The Making of the Modern World

By: Victor Sebestyen

Nineteen forty-six is the year that would signal the beginning of the Cold War, the end of the British Empire, and the beginning of the rivalry between the United States and the USSR. Victor Sebestyen reveals the year’s events by chronologically framing what was taking place in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with seminal decisions made by heads of state that would profoundly change the old order forever. The map of Eastern Europe would be redrawn, Chinese communists would gain decisive victories in their fight for power, and the world would witness the birth of Israel. 1946 was a year of seismic and dramatic events. Drawing on personal testimonies and new archival research, Sebestyen has written a vivid and compelling narrative that brilliantly evokes the beginning of the Cold War set against a devastated landscape of dystopian horrors. (With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs.)

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Page Count

482

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101910283

ISBN 13

9781101910283

1946

The Making of the Modern World

By: Victor Sebestyen

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1946

The Making of the Modern World

By: Victor Sebestyen

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482

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Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101910283

ISBN 13

9781101910283

The Russian Revolution

By: Victor Sebestyen

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The Russian Revolution

By: Victor Sebestyen

An illustrated account of one of the most pivotal events in modern history – the Russian revolution of 1917. In the early years of the twentieth century, Imperial Russia was an ethnically diverse empire, stretching from Ukraine and Belarus in the west to the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East. At the head of this profoundly dysfunctional polity was Tsar Nicholas II, whose Romanov successors had ruled Russia since the start of the seventeenth century with a lethal mixture of domestic cruelty, expansionist energy and reactionary incompetence – interspersed with occasional reformist spasms. By early 1917, Russia was unreformable, and the tsar's authority irreparably damaged. In March of that year, Nicholas II abdicated and the tsarist system was overthrown. The provisional government installed in its stead to organise democratic elections lasted just eight chaotic months before being ousted by Lenin's Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. Writing with crisp immediacy, Sebestyen narrates an unprecedented era of political and social convulsion. The Russian Revolution changed the course of history, and, more than a century later, their backwash continues to be deeply felt across the world.

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Page Count

198

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1800244703

ISBN 13

9781800244702

Budapest

Portrait of a City Between East and West

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Budapest

Portrait of a City Between East and West

By: Victor Sebestyen

AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A vivid and enthralling account of the historical and cultural events that defined Budapest, a unique city in the heart of Europe, on the fault line between East and West—from the critically acclaimed author of Lenin “A compelling portrait of one of the most important cities in Europe. Full of sharp insights, elegant writing and vivid characters.” —Andrew Roberts, author of The Chief Victor Sebestyen has written a sweeping, colorful and immersive history of the capital of Hungary, from the fifth century to the present day: a metropolis whose location in Europe has marked it as a crucial city—at times rich and prosperous, at times enduring unbearable hardship. It has stood at the center of the world-changing historical developments for hundreds of years: the Muslim invasion, The Reformation, both World Wars, fascism, the Holocaust and Communism. Sebestyen mixes colorful details and anecdotes about the people, streets and neighborhoods of his hometown with its rich cultural legacy of literature, music, and architecture. He shows how its people have shifted culturally, politically and emotionally between East and West, through many revolutions, bloody battles, uprisings, and wars of conquest won and lost. He vividly brings to life the many rulers: the ruthless early Magyar, Hun, and Mongol chieftains, celebrated medieval kings and princes, Ottoman Turks, and the Hapsburgs, including the beloved Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”). We also learn about colorful figures in politics, the arts and the sciences, among them Theodor Herzl, father of modern political Zionism; film pioneer Alexander Korda who held court with the director of Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, young reporter Billy Wilder, and photographer Robert Capa in the glamorous New York Café still going today; Edward Teller, inventor of the H bomb; and Countess Elisabeth Báthory, a cousin of the King of Poland, who became a serial killer, among many others. Sebestyen’s compelling history of Budapest is a lively page-turner as well as being uniquely revelatory and authoritative account of one of the most important cities of Europe.

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Page Count

441

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

0593317564

ISBN 13

9780593317563

Budapest

Portrait of a City Between East and West

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Budapest

Portrait of a City Between East and West

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Page Count

441

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Pantheon

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ISBN 10

0593317564

ISBN 13

9780593317563

Lenin

The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Lenin

The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

By: Victor Sebestyen

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Page Count

675

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101871644

ISBN 13

9781101871645

Bach's Keyboard Music

By: Victor Lederer

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Bach's Keyboard Music

By: Victor Lederer

Overzicht van Bach's werken geschreven voor piano, orgel en klavecimbel; met audio-cd.

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Age

Page Count

163

Publisher

Hal Leonard Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

1574671820

ISBN 13

9781574671827

Book's by Victor Sebestyen

Lenin

Lenin

Twelve Days

Twelve Days

1946

1946

1946

1946

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution

Budapest

Budapest

Budapest

Budapest

Lenin

Lenin

Bach's Keyboard Music

Bach's Keyboard Music

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