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 80
... strategic gains from the pact which, crucially, bought the Soviets time to prepare their defences. In the 1990s the debate about the Stalin–Hitler pact took a new turn when a number of Russian historians began to argue that the root ...
... strategic situation three times a day by his General Staff officers. He expected accurate, unblemished reporting and was quick to spot inconsistency and error. He had a phenomenal memory for facts, names and faces. He was prepared to ...
... strategic wisdom only through blood-spattered trial and error'. At the same time, Volkogonov was not blind to the positive aspects of Stalin's warlordship, in particular the Soviet leader's ability to see 'the profound dependence of the ...
... strategic command. He successfully supervised the fronts and all the war efforts of the country ... I think that Stalin displayed all the basic qualities of a Soviet general during the strategic offensive of the Soviet Armed Forces ...
... strategic theorist and a vigorous proponent and organiser of the Red Army's modernisation and reequipment.51 Arrested at the same time as Tukhachevskii were seven other high ranking generals and in June all the accused were tried in ...
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 |