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 57
... 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 of his actions. But I do suggest that ...
... interest in military affairs and became a persistent critic of what he called the civil war mentality, insisting that the Red Army had to constantly modernise its doctrines and arms and resist the temptation to bask in former glory ...
... interests of the Soviet system as synonymous with the strengthening of his own personal power position and used the ... interest groups. This conflict between contending class forces was seen as a struggle waged between states as well as ...
... interests. In December 1945 Stalin complained to Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary, that 'as he saw the situation, the United Kingdom had India and her possessions in the Indian Ocean in her sphere of interest; the United ...
... interests across the globe.87 He did muse on the possibility of a future war with the western powers but saw such a conflict as remote. 'I am completely certain that there will be no war, it is rubbish. They [the British and Americans] ...
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 |