Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953This breakthrough book provides a detailed reconstruction of Stalin's leadership from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 to his death in 1953. Making use of a wealth of new material from Russian archives, Geoffrey Roberts challenges a long list of standard perceptions of Stalin: his qualities as a leader; his relationships with his own generals and with other great world leaders; his foreign policy; and his role in instigating the Cold War. While frankly exploring the full extent of Stalin's brutalities and their impact on the Soviet people, Roberts also uncovers evidence leading to the stunning conclusion that Stalin was both the greatest military leader of the twentieth century and a remarkable politician who sought to avoid the Cold War and establish a long-term detente with the capitalist world. By means of an integrated military, political, and diplomatic narrative, the author draws a sustained and compelling personal portrait of the Soviet leader. The resulting picture is fascinating and contradictory, and it will inevitably change the way we understand Stalin and his place in history. Roberts depicts a despot who helped save the world for democracy, a personal charmer who disciplined mercilessly, a utopian ideologue who could be a practical realist, and a warlord who undertook the role of architect of post-war peace. |
From inside the book
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... — 1945– I. Title. DK268.S8R574 2006 947.084'2092—dc22 [B] 2006023395 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978–0–300–13622–7(pbk) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In Memory of Dennis Ogden (1927–2004)
... British International History Group, occasions that have allowed me to share my thinking with fellow International History specialists. The Moscow conference circuit was opened up to me by Professor Gabriel Gorodetsky in 1995 and the ...
... British communists who had to come to terms with the debunking of the Stalin cult by Khrushchev in 1956. He was in Moscow at the time, working as a translator, and attended a party meeting at his publishing house where the 'secret ...
... British Agreement on joint action against Germany German capture of Smolensk Stalin appointed People's Commissar for Defence Atlantic Charter Leningrad surrounded Germans capture Kiev Anglo-American–Soviet supplies agreement Germans ...
... British and Soviet foreign ministers First session of the UN General Assembly Stalin's election speech Elections to Supreme Soviet Churchill's 'Iron Curtain'speech in Fulton, Missouri CFM meeting in Paris CFM meeting in Paris Paris ...
Contents
Stalin and his Generals | |
Stalin Churchill and Roosevelt | |
Stalins Year of Victories | |
Stalins Aims in Germany and Eastern Europe | |
Stalin Truman and the End of the Second World | |
Stalin and the Origins of the Cold | |
The Domestic Context of Stalins Postwar Foreign Policy | |
Stalin Embattled | |
Stalin in the Court of History | |
Select Bibliography | 1957 |
Index | 1975 |