Scattered within the 657 pages of Simon Sebag Montefiore's enthralling biography of Josef Stalin and his vicious circle are a few Mel Brooks moments.

	"Stalin: The Court of the Red Czar" By Simon Sebag Montefiore Knopf ($30)

Stalin, Montefiore reports, had a fine voice and loved to sing Orthodox Church hymns, Georgian folk songs and operatic arias. "Stalin's pitch was perfect," he writes, quoting the wife of one of the dictator's defense ministers. "Indeed, one of his lieutenants said Stalin was good enough to have become a professional singer."

In other words, Montefiore's subject is the Stalin that Beria knew, the Stalin that Khrushchev loved, the Stalin with a song in his heart.

Montefiore is a former reporter for the London Sunday Times, and he demonstrates many of the virtues of an outstanding journalist.

When he writes about what Stalin saw from the windows of his summer dachas and suburban retreats, he writes with authority because he has been there researching this book.

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Stalin's death, and all of his cronies also have passed on to their dubious rewards. Montefiore, however, sought out and talked to their children and grandchildren, as well as to the relatives of his victims. Many have strong, sometimes surprisingly pleasant memories of life around Stalin.

Montefiore combines his research among primary sources and the fruits of his interviews into a focused, gripping story about a man who, along with Mao, Hitler and Genghis Khan, has to be in the running for history's greatest mass murderer.

But Montefiore's Stalin is a man of great charm and phenomenal memory, important attributes for a politician. His social charm was critical in wooing allies and disarming critics. More ominously, he could keep mental notes on his widening circle of enemies.

Stalin also understood the importance of a grand gesture.

The Germans came close to capturing Moscow soon after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.

That autumn Stalin had to decide whether to abandon his capital. The Germans were within artillery range when he announced the government was staying.

To the disbelief of his underlings, his next step was to order preparations for the annual military parade in Red Square to mark the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The newsreels of Stalin reviewing troops atop Lenin's Mausoleum were screened across the country, providing a critical morale boost.

Two of the best known Stalin quotes are: "One death is a tragedy; one million deaths is a statistic" and "No man; no problem." Hard numbers remain illusive, but the death toll linked to Stalin and his policies easily exceeds 20 million.

But as athletes and Academy Award winners have to admit in their acceptance speeches, they could not have done it alone.

Stalin and his associates learned from Lenin what Montefiore calls "the convenience of death as the simplest and most effective political tool."

"Systematic murder started soon after Lenin took power in 1917 and never stopped until Stalin's death," he writes.

One man couldn't do it all. "The responsibility lies with hundreds of thousands of officials who ordered or perpetrated the murders. Stalin and the magnates enthusiastically, recklessly, almost joyfully killed, and they usually killed many more than they were asked to kill."

The saddest line in the book?

"None were ever tried for these crimes."