Stalin governed through an intimate inner circle, not just formal institutions

Montefiore shows that decisions affecting millions of lives were frequently made not through formal Politburo procedure but during late-night dinners, drinking sessions, and informal gatherings at Stalin's dacha, where a small, shifting group of lieutenants competed for his favor and attention. Official titles and institutional roles mattered less than a person's standing in this informal, personal orbit.

This meant that access to Stalin himself — being invited to dinner, sitting near him, being the target of his jokes rather than his silence — functioned as the real currency of power, more predictive of a person's safety and influence than any formal position they held. Montefiore treats this informal court as the actual operating system of Soviet governance beneath its official bureaucratic facade.

Takeaway: in highly personalized systems of power, proximity to the leader can matter more than any formal title or institutional role.