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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... documents from the archives. Lytton Strachey complained that 'the history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it'.4 Faced with the mountain of new evidence on Stalin and his era, I now know how he felt ...
... documents. The reason is very simple ... stenographic records show that the French and English had no serious desire to achieve a fair and honest agreement with us, which could have averted war. All the time they only dodged.65 The ...
... documentation that war against the USSR is inevitable in the spring of this year must be considered as disinformation emanating from English or even, perhaps, German intelligence.'24 Golikov's subsequent reports to Stalin, however ...
... document identified the main enemies as Germany and its allies in Europe, and Japan in the Far East. Although the Soviet armed forces had to be prepared to fight a war on two fronts, Germany was identified as the primary threat and the ...
... document – which has been the subject of extensive controversy in Russia57 – is uncertain. It was a handwritten document prepared by General Vasilevskii, at that time Deputy Chief of Operations, in the name of Zhukov and Timoshenko but ...
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 |