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
... wanted to see it continue after the war. While his policies and actions undoubtedly contributed to the outbreak of ... wanted or how he wanted events to develop. He was as capricious as he was calculating and frequently took decisions ...
... wanted, the weight of the tanks his roads and bridges would take, and the details of the type of metal he needed to build aircraft. These were not characteristics of a bureaucrat, but rather those of an extremely able and vigorous war ...
... wanted to upset the 'boss'. Still, notwithstanding his unlimited power and increasing caprice, Stalin's postwar leadership was much more modern and rational than previously.92 At the 19th party congress in October 1952 – the first such ...
... wanted to know what the Turks were up to. Stalin opined that while Britain was weak militarily it would wage war craftily and that the French army was still worthy of consideration. He proposed a toast to Hitler's health, telling ...
... wanted to set the Soviet Union and Germany against each other in order to provoke 'a grand new slaughter, a new holocaust of nations'.9 Here Molotov was echoing Stalin's critique of British and French foreign policy at the 18th Congress ...
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 |