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
Results 1-5 of 95
... Red Square. AKG Images. Hitler and his generals. AKG Images. Text of Stalin's radio broadcast of 3 July 1941 ... Army soldiers hoisting the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag building in Berlin, May 1945. AKG Images. Soviet troops display ...
... Red Army Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor Hitler declares war on the US Eden trip to Moscow Declaration of the United ... Red Army) German 6th Army surrounded in Stalingrad Launch of Operation Ring at Stalingrad Leningrad blockade broken ...
... Red Army Stalin appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union Germans announce discovery of mass graves at Katyn USSR breaks off diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile in London Publication of resolution proposing the ...
... Red Army Yalta conference Budapest falls to the Red Army USSR renounces its pact of neutrality with Japan Soviet–Yugoslav Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Aid and Postwar Co-operation Roosevelt dies; Truman becomes President Vienna falls to ...
... Soviet defeats was that the Red Army was deployed for attack, not defence. The Soviet military were not so much caught napping as caught in the middle of preparations for their own attack on Germany. The novelty of this interpretation ...
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 |