The Review of Essad Bey's Stalin in New York Times back in 1932 says it best: “This is a dangerous book to put before the general public. The average reader not familiar with the background of the Russian revolutionary movement may be misled by the undocumented and purely legendary pages that fill the first half of this biography of the ‘legendary Georgian’ written by the mysterious Essad Bey...."

From Joseph Shaplen, “Stalin, Symbol of Asia’s Cruelty and Power: Essad-Bey Paints Him as an Anti-Intellectual Who Strangled the Prima Donna Trotsky" in The New York Times Book Review (March 27, 1932), p. 10.

Is it any wonder that the English edition of Stalin did not go through any reprints after such a review from New York Times!

Skip Essad Bey - all of his 16 books in 8 years!!!! - His biographies - Nicolas 2, Lenin, Mohammed, Reza Shah, Stalin, Allah is Great (Ibn Saud) - all fall under the category of "Ain't so" stories. For a compilation of many of the reviews of Essad Bey's books, see "Critics: Fact or Fiction: What Essad Bey's Contemporaries Said," in Azerbaijan International magazine.
http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai152_folder/152_index_eng.html

or magazine design version of contents
http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai152_folder/152_pdf/152_pdf_english/ai_152_index_eng.pdf

Save yourself time and headaches, Don't read Essad Bey's "biographies". They're all a figment of his imagination and historically unreliable.