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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... 19th Congress of the Soviet communist party Stalin's last public statement welcomes the idea of negotiations with the new Eisenhower administration Death of Stalin 1 Introduction Stalin at War In the pantheon of twentieth-century.
... negotiating the terms of military alliance with Britain and France, but he feared London and Paris were manoeuvring to provoke a Soviet–German war that would allow them the luxury of standing aside while the Nazis and the communists ...
... negotiations. On social occasions Stalin showed concern for everybody and drank toasts with everyone, but – unlike some of his associates – never got drunk or lost his self-control. Harriman was at particular pains to deny that Stalin ...
... negotiations with the United States and Great Britain.81 In 1947 Stalin talked to Sergei Eisenstein about his new film, Ivan the Terrible, and advised him that Tsar Ivan was a great and wise ruler ... Ivan the Terrible's wisdom rested ...
... negotiations with Britain and the United States about the postwar peace settlement. As he told the visiting Republican politician Harold Stassen in April 1947: The economic systems of Germany and the USA are the same but nevertheless ...
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 |