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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... question 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.
... questions about the failure of the party to control Stalin's dictatorship and about the culpability of other members of the Soviet military and political elite in his wrongdoings. Stalin continued to be criticised in the postKhrushchev ...
... question knew no bounds and was fuelled by the opening of party and state archives which revealed for the first time the details of the means and mechanisms of his dictatorial rule. It might have been expected that the 1990s would see ...
... questions relating to the preparation for and execution of operations'. In sum, it was Vasilevskii's profound conviction that Stalin, especially in the latter part of the war, was the strongest and most remarkable figure of the ...
... question that goes to the heart of the debate about Stalin and the nature of his regime. Broadly, there are two schools of thought among historians. First, that Stalin used the Terror to consolidate his dictatorship and system of power ...
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 |