Richard Pipes, a professor emeritus of history at Harvard, reviews Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new book on Josef Stalin, ”Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar” in today’s NY Times Review of Books. The entire review is well worth reading, and this tidbit about Stalin’s post-WWII mood is a good sample:

Stalin emerged from the war utterly exhausted and more than ever convinced of his infallibility. In his last years he became inordinately capricious, suspecting everyone and ready to jettison on trumped-up charges even his most loyal followers. He spent much time vacationing in his lavish palaces. He indulged in drunken orgies, where he would force his ministers to dance for his amusement: ”He made the sweating Khrushchev drop to his haunches and do the gopak that made him look like ‘a cow dancing on ice.’ ” The Polish security boss, Jacob Berman, was made to waltz with Molotov.