Simon Sebag Montefiore: "The Greatest Russian"

Simon Sebag Montefiore has written two very well received books on the life of Russian dictator Stalin. However, his latest column for Britain’s Times newspaper is likely to be slightly less well received: in debating who should be crowned as the "Greatest Russian", currently the subject of a Russian television programme, he describes King Henry VIII as "the English Stalin"! Given that the murderous regime of Stalin killed millions, I’d loved to have seen Montefiore go into greater detail about this comparison, but regrettably he stays on topic… and it is, to me at least, an interesting topic. There is something horrifying about Stalin being in with even a chance of winning the contest.