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
... Truman and the End of the Second World War 10 The Lost Peace: Stalin and the Origins of the Cold War 11 Generalissimo at Home: The Domestic Context of Stalin's Postwar Foreign Policy 12 Cold War Confrontations: Stalin Embattled 13 ...
... Truman at the Potsdam conference, July 1945. AKG Images. Atomic bomb damage in Hiroshima, Japan, following the explosion on 6 August 1945. Corbis. Berlin children greet the arrival of a 'Raisin Bomber' during the Berlin blockade. AKG ...
... Truman fought their diplomatic and political battles, and why the coalition collapsed after the Second World War. That aim remains a central strand of this book but in 2001–2002 I conducted a study of the battle of Stalingrad that made ...
... Truman becomes President Vienna falls to the Red Army Red Army's Berlin Operation begins San Francisco conference on the foundation of the UN Hitler commits suicide Berlin surrenders to the Red Army Germany surrenders unconditionally ...
... Truman speech to US Congress Marshall Plan speech Paris conference on the Marshall Plan Founding conference of the Cominform CFM meeting in London Communist coup in Czechoslovakia Beginning of Berlin blockade Yugoslavia expelled from ...
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 |