Hello!

I'm reading Montefioris the young stalin biography right now for a paper I'm writing and too me it seems as if it is not an acceptable book for the discipline.

My translation has no footnotes (don't know if the OG has), the writing style seems straight out of some fanfiction and some of the written stuff seems impossible to know, even with the best of sources.

Normally I'd label it myself from this on, but I saw it cited in some very reputable history books and I am therefore confused.

If somebody could just give me a short yes/ no, I don't need lengthy explanations, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

edit: This is what Orlando Figes, who is very respected wrote about it:

"Despite its title, his book is not a biography of Stalin, although the tyrant's sinister presence can be felt on every page. Sebag Montefiore has written something rather more interesting and original -- an intimate account of daily life in Stalin's entourage. (...) Stalin has its minor faults (the footnotes, for example, are inadequate, which is regrettable for a book with so much new material). But its extraordinary revelation of the evil -- the complete amorality -- at the heart of the dictator's court will change the way historians approach the great historical questions about the Stalinist regime." - Orlando Figes, Sunday Telegraph

Also seems ambigious.