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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... noted, was a former adherent of Stalin's great rival, Trotsky (murdered by a Soviet security agent in Mexico in 1940), and was not personally sympathetic to the communist dictator. While Khrushchev's 'secret speech' to the 20th party ...
... noted, Stalin's 'thinking was more global, and it was this that placed him above the others in the military leadership'.47 It should not be assumed that all the criticisms levelled against Stalin are either accurate or true. In many ...
... noted earlier, the Soviets had never reconciled themselves to the loss of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine to the Poles and Stalin intended from the outset of the Red Army invasion to incorporate these territories into the USSR ...
... noted in his memoirs, he 'had lived through quite a number of anti-Soviet storms, but that which followed 30 November 1939 broke all records'.63 In France the atmosphere was even more tense and Ya. Z. Suritz, the Soviet ambassador in ...
... noted no desire for German domination of the world ... he did not deny that among the national-socialists there were those who spoke of German domination of the world. But ... in Germany there are intelligent people who understand that ...
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 |