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
... prepared to use whatever violence it took to impose his will and achieve his goals. In the titanic struggle with Hitler his methods were unpalatable but effective, and perhaps unavoidable if victory was to be secured. Equally, Stalin's ...
... 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 cause of the disaster of June 1941 was not Stalin's efforts to maintain peace ...
... preparation of a preemptive strike against Germany, the Soviet dictator himself calculated that such an action could provoke a premature war and he decided to gamble everything on the possibility of maintaining peace with Hitler. Stalin ...
... prepared to use shock tactics as well as flattery to get his way in 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 ...
... prepared to listen to arguments but expected proponents to stick to the point and kept his own contributions short and decisive. However, the main focus of Soviet military memoirs is not these personal abilities but Stalin's performance ...
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 |