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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... Moscow was supported and facilitated by Professor Alexander Chubar'yan's Institute of General History in the Russian Academy of Sciences, in particular by my dear friends in the War and Geopolitics section, headed by Professor Oleg ...
... Moscow Fall of Odessa Stalin speeches in Moscow Moscow counter-offensive by Red Army Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor Hitler declares war on the US Eden trip to Moscow Declaration of the United Nations Hitler directive on Operation Blau ...
... Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers Kiev recaptured by the Red Army Tehran Conference Soviet–Czechoslovak Treaty ... Moscow Red Army enters Belgrade Bulgaria surrenders De Gaulle visit to Moscow Franco-Soviet Treaty of Alliance German ...
... Moscow's food and fuel supplies from the Caucasus. In the 1920s and 1930s Stalin maintained an interest in military affairs and became a persistent critic of what he called the civil war mentality, insisting that the Red Army had to ...
... Moscow. The triple alliance negotiations were conducted in private, but there was little of their content that did not leak to the press. When the Anglo-French military delegation arrived in Moscow on 10 August it was greeted with ...
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 |