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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... Postwar Division of Germany 20 The Korean War, 1950–1953 Figure The structure of Soviet military and political decision-making during the Great Patriotic War Preface and Acknowledgements This study of Stalin as warlord and.
... decisions that worked against his own best interests. The other thing this book does is to cut Stalin down to human size. This is not to deny the tumultuous times in which he lived nor to underrate the momentous or awful nature of many ...
... decisions and actions during the Second World War and in the cold war more or less chronologically. But the book begins by setting the scene with an overall picture and assessment of Stalin at war. 1939 23 August 1 September 3 September ...
... decision to do this deal with Hitler on the very eve of a new European war was a dramatic, last-minute improvisation. Only a few days before this radical turn in Soviet policy Stalin had been negotiating the terms of military alliance ...
... decision. He was in effect his own commander-in-chief, his own minister of defence, his own quartermaster, his own ... decisions and activities during the war. In Stalin's appointments diary we can see who visited him in his Kremlin ...
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 |