A new novel about the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of 1907? Starring Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Rosa Luxemburg? What’s not to like?

And the book’s premise — that Stalin was a long-term, paid informer for the tsarist secret police (the Okhrana) — made the book especially interesting for me. The fact that it had a positive review in The New York Times — that was icing on the cake.

Sadly, this is a very disappointing book. The research seems to consist of the author reading (more likely — skimming) a single book from a couple of decades ago that argued Stalin had been an agent of the tsarist police. The author of that book, Roman Brackman, built his case on the testimony of NKVD General Alexander Orlov, who was perhaps the least trustworthy source imaginable. (Following his defection to the West in the late 1930s, Orlov neglected to tell his FBI handlers that during his time in England, he recruited the infamous Cambridge spy ring.)

There is little evidence that Stephen May read anything else about the colourful history of the Russian revolutionary movement — and anyone with a passing knowledge of that history will spot the bloopers from early on.

For example, the Okhrana super-spy Ievno Azef, was not “the former head of the party’s combat organisation”. He was the head of a different party’s combat organisation, a party which was a rival to the Social Democrats. It was called the Social Revolutionary Party.

Another example: to describe Rosa Luxemburg as the “influential theorist of permanent revolution” is completely wrong. Permanent revolution was a theory created by the little-remembered Parvus (Helphand) and embraced by Trotsky.

And the idea that Stalin consorted with Trotsky in London was absurd. Trotsky wrote about meeting Stalin briefly — noting that he could barely remember the man. His disdain for Stalin was one of the reasons the future Soviet dictator hated Trotsky and eventually had him killed.

The characterisation of Rosa Luxemburg is actually offensive. She is depicted in this book in the same way as the anarchist Emma Goldman was portrayed in E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, which was a far superior book. Rosa is shown as a sexually liberated woman giving life lessons to a younger female comrade while bathing together. You’d not imagine such a character as the author of dense economic works such as The Accumulation of Capital, or The Industrial Development of Poland. In this book, Luxemburg seems to have hardly any interest in politics, and like Trotsky she seems to be one of Lenin’s Bolsheviks (which neither of them actually were — certainly not in 1907).

The most important figures in the Russian revolutionary movement, including Plekhanov and Martov, are treated as buffoons.

All this could be forgiven if there was an interesting story to tell. But there is no story. Nothing happens. Romances that might have taken off go nowhere. People whose lives appear to be under threat are rescued. In the end, everyone attends a congress — about which we learn almost nothing — and then goes home.

Historically illiterate, offensive in its treatment of key intellectual figures on the Russian Left, and devoid of any drama or tension, this is a completely vacuous work.

Meanwhile, the true story of the young Stalin and his relationship with the tsarist police remains to be written. ( )

Fascinating story about Stalin as a young man in London in 1907 attending tthe Fifth Congress of the Russian Communist Party. He is accompanied by two other Russians and meets with such as Lenin, Trotsky, and other lesser known founders of Russian communism. There are those that promote complete revolution and others who take a slower and want more compromise with the Tsar (the Mensheviks). The Russian secret spy organization under the Tsar also play a part.

In London, Stalin meets Elli Vuokko, a young woman from Finland representing factory workers. They spend time together but Stalin is distant often thinking of his wife and young son back in Georgia. There are other women Leftist attending such as the Suffragettes and another woman who is teaching the martial arts to women in order to learn to protect themselves.

The plot is somewhat complicated but it is the mixture of these various characters at London at this time which is so interesting. I did have to look many things up in order to understand the complexities of the situation. It is well written and certainly believable.

I loved the ending where Elli and Stalin agree that after the Revolution they will go on with mundane lives and their names will be forgotten -- definitely not true for Stalin and this book brings Elli's history to life.

A good read; I learned a lot. There were times of humor, times I had to reread and times I had to research in order to get an understanding. ( )