Joseph Stalin, you silly old possum

Through intimate chats with the Soviet dictator, a British diplomat changed the course of the war

384pp, John Murray, T £19.99 (0808 196 6794), RRP£25, ebook £14.99

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A murderous dictator, a megalomaniac, a psychopath – I’ve heard Joseph Stalin described as many things, but never as a pet possum. That’s what Archibald Clark Kerr, Britain’s ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1942 to 1946, saw in the Soviet leader: “A possum you would get very fond of, against your better judgement, but would have to keep a sharp eye on, lest he nip you in the buttocks out of sheer mischief ”.

Archie, as the maverick diplomat was called by everyone, met Stalin in March 1942. Smoking pipes with

him in his private bunker while German bombers flew over Moscow, he noticed how the dictator’s face permanently “seemed to droop… until something pleases him, and then the whole thing tightens up and crinkles into the most engaging and disarming smile.” Chatting (through interpreters) about women, sex, tobacco and the war, the British diplomat and the Soviet dictator struck a bond – “two old rogues” together, as Archie put it.

This makes for uncomfortable reading today. Stalin was responsible for millions of deaths. But he was also Hitler’s enemy, engaged in an existential fight against the might of a seemingly unstoppable German army. This made him an indispensable ally. Churchill was bent on saving the Soviet Union, which he had once vowed to strangle

at birth. As he put it: “If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”

But how to forge an alliance with an enigmatic and deeply distrustful dictator? People like Clark Kerr were the answer: unconventional, likeable and so interesting to talk to that even paranoid Stalin would let his guard down. Archie was a tanned, adventurous bisexual who had previously been the Ambassador to war-torn China where he raised eyebrows by swimming in the Yangtze River despite unpredictable currents and the risk of getting shot at by Japanese warplanes.

He recklessly courted danger, scandal and the attention of the world’s most powerful men. This made him a controversial figure even at the time but also an