Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore is a British historian and author of books about imperial and modern Russian history, specifically focusing on the Romanovs family dynasty and the Soviet Union. His writing is often cited for its depth of research, historical detail, and vivid writing. Montefiore’s books are praised for bringing to life the human stories behind events from Russia's long and often troubled past.
The son of prominent British lawyer Lord Simon Montefiore and his wife, author Lady Buzzy Clause Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore was born in London on June 27th 1965. He completed his undergraduate degree in history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1987 and went on to become an editor of the Observer magazine and a documentary filmmaker. After gaining a master’s degree in International History and Politics at the London School of Economics in 1993, he worked as a journalist in Moscow, covering the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Montefiore's literary career began in 1995 with the publication of his first book, Potemkin: Catherine the Great’s Imperial Partner, which examined the turbulent reign of Catherine II of Russia. This was followed quickly by his 2002 book, Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair. The book, which won the History Book of the Year Award from the Sunday Times, blends a dramatic narrative with new and keenly-researched details to re-create the life of Catherine II and her long-lived romance with Grigory Potemkin.
The success of this book was quickly followed by Montefiore's two-volume biography on the Romanov family dynasty, The Romanovs: 1613-1918 (2016) and Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar (2004). The Romanovs tracks the Romanovs' 300-year reign, chronicling their rule, their loves, their passions, their voyages, and their courts, while also examining their very human weaknesses and flaws. Similarly, Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar tracks the life of the infamous Soviet leader, providing an engaging portrait of not just a tyrant but a complex human being full of contradictions and ambition. The book received the prestigious Upton Sinclair Prize and was also named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Montefiore’s other works on Russia include Jerusalem: The Biography (2012), Young Stalin (2007), and The Romanovs: A Story of Ambition, Betrayal, and Redemption (2016). He has also published two volumes of fiction, Sashenka (2008) and Red Sky at Noon (2017). His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic, and he has served as editor of the Penguin History of Modern Russia and the 19-volume Phoenix Press Russian History Collection, as well as consulting editor of the historic 15-volume Menasseh Ben Texts from the Soviet Archives.
Montefiore currently lives in London with his wife, the writer Santa Sebag Montefiore, and their two children. He is an honorary professor of history at UCL and has served as a visiting professor of History at the University of Oxford. In 2019, Montefiore was made a Royal Historical Society Fellow. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Russian History, and his work has been widely acclaimed for its vividness, detail, and narrative power.
