Stalin and the Inevitable War, 1936-1941

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136758186
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (367 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin and the Inevitable War, 1936-1941 by : Silvio Pons

Download or read book Stalin and the Inevitable War, 1936-1941 written by Silvio Pons and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-30 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the responses of the Soviet Union to the European crises which led to World War II. It is based on a substantial body of political and diplomatic documents that has become accessible to scholars since the opening up of former Soviet archives in 1992.

Stalin

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 073522448X
Total Pages : 1249 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin by : Stephen Kotkin

Download or read book Stalin written by Stephen Kotkin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 1249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Monumental.” —The New York Times Book Review Pulitzer Prize-finalist Stephen Kotkin has written the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin, from collectivization and the Great Terror to the conflict with Hitler's Germany that is the signal event of modern world history In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of the world’s largest peasant economy into “socialist modernity,” otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost. What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa. The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. But Stalin did not flinch. By 1934, when the Soviet Union had stabilized and socialism had been implanted in the countryside, praise for his stunning anti-capitalist success came from all quarters. Stalin, however, never forgave and never forgot, with shocking consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite of young strivers like himself. Stalin’s obsessions drove him to execute nearly a million people, including the military leadership, diplomatic and intelligence officials, and innumerable leading lights in culture. While Stalin revived a great power, building a formidable industrialized military, the Soviet Union was effectively alone and surrounded by perceived enemies. The quest for security would bring Soviet Communism to a shocking and improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain would not unfold as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective dictatorships, drew ever closer to collision, as the world hung in the balance. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is a history of the world during the build-up to its most fateful hour, from the vantage point of Stalin’s seat of power. It is a landmark achievement in the annals of historical scholarship, and in the art of biography.

Stalin's Wars

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300150407
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin's Wars by : Geoffrey Roberts

Download or read book Stalin's Wars written by Geoffrey Roberts and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 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.

Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316352196
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia by : Alfred J. Rieber

Download or read book Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia written by Alfred J. Rieber and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a major new study of the successor states that emerged in the wake of the collapse of the great Russian, Habsburg, Iranian, Ottoman and Qing Empires and of the expansionist powers who renewed their struggle over the Eurasian borderlands through to the end of the Second World War. Surveying the great power rivalry between the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for control over the Western and Far Eastern boundaries of Eurasia, Alfred J. Rieber provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of Soviet policy from the Revolution through to the beginning of the Cold War. Paying particular attention to the Soviet Union, the book charts how these powers adopted similar methods to the old ruling elites to expand and consolidate their conquests, ranging from colonisation and deportation to forced assimilation, but applied them with a force that far surpassed the practices of their imperial predecessors.

Iron Lazar

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Publisher : Anthem Press
ISBN 13 : 1783080884
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis Iron Lazar by : E. A. Rees

Download or read book Iron Lazar written by E. A. Rees and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English-language biography of Lazar Kaganovich, one of Stalin’s leading deputies, ‘Iron Lazar’ investigates the life of a man of key importance to the shaping of the Stalinist state. With its insight into the political and personal relations of the Stalin group, as well as its examination of this aspiring politician’s policy-making role during the Stalinist regime, ‘Iron Lazar’ investigates the previously undocumented life of Lazar Kaganovich, the last surviving member of the Stalin government and one-time heir apparent to the Soviet Union.

The Complete Maisky Diaries

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300117825
Total Pages : 1669 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Complete Maisky Diaries by : Ivan Mikhaĭlovich Maĭskiĭ

Download or read book The Complete Maisky Diaries written by Ivan Mikhaĭlovich Maĭskiĭ and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 1669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complete diaries that Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London, kept between 1932 and 1943 Confiscated by Soviet authorities in the 1950s, the diaries of Ivan Maisky, the USSR's ambassador to Great Britain from 1932 to 1943, have been unearthed, annotated, and edited for publication in a three-volume set that Niall Ferguson predicts "will stand as one of the great achievements of twenty-first century historical scholarship." Maisky's revelations illuminate Soviet foreign policy in the years prior to and during World War II, providing fascinating perspectives on London's political life and climate, key figures and events, and the Kremlin rivalries that influenced Soviet policy. Volume 1: The Rise of Hitler and the Gathering Clouds of War, 1932-1938 Volume 2: The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the Battle of Britain, 1939-1940 Volume 3: The German Invasion of Russia and the Forging of the Grand Alliance, 1941-19

The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317867831
Total Pages : 553 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (178 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union by : Martin Mccauley

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union written by Martin Mccauley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An expert in probing mafia-type relationships in present-day Russia, Martin McCauley here offers a vigorously written scrutiny of Soviet politics and society since the days of Lenin and Stalin.' John Keep, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto. The birth of the Soviet Union surprised many; its demise amazed the whole world. How did imperial Russia give way to the Soviet Union in 1917, and why did the USSR collapse so quickly in 1991? Marxism promised paradise on earth, but the Communist Party never had true power, instead allowing Lenin and Stalin to become dictators who ruled in its name. The failure of the planned economy to live up to expectations led to a boom in the unplanned economy, in particular the black market. In turn, this led to the growth of organised crime and corruption within the government. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union examines the strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions of the first Marxist state, and reassesses the role of power, authority and legitimacy in Soviet politics. Including first-person accounts, anecdotes, illustrations and diagrams to illustrate key concepts, McCauley provides a seminal history of twentieth-century Russia.

The Origins of the Second World War

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317204697
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of the Second World War by : Richard Overy

Download or read book The Origins of the Second World War written by Richard Overy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-17 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the reasons why the Second World War broke out in September 1939 and why a European conflict developed into a war that spanned the globe, The Origins of the Second World War argues that this was not just ‘Hitler’s War’ but one that had its roots and origins in the decline of the old empires of Britain and France and the rise of ambitious new powers in Germany, Italy and Japan who wanted large empires of their own. This fourth edition has been revised throughout, covering the origins of the war from its background in the First World War to its expansion to embrace the Soviet Union, Japan and the United States by the end of 1941. Creating a comprehensive and analytical narrative while remaining a succinct overview of the subject, this book takes a thematic approach to the complex range of events that culminated in global warfare, discussing factors such as economic rivalry, rearmament and domestic politics and emphasising that any explanation of the outbreak of hostilities must be global in scope. Containing updated references and primary source documents alongside a glossary, a chronology of key events and a Who’s Who of important figures, this book is an invaluable introduction for any student of this fascinating period.

Securitizing Balance of Power Theory

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739170716
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Securitizing Balance of Power Theory by : Ilai Z. Saltzman

Download or read book Securitizing Balance of Power Theory written by Ilai Z. Saltzman and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Securitizing Balance of Power Theory: A Polymorphic Reconceptualization by Ilai Z. Saltzman presents a cutting-edge attempt to re-conceptualize one of the fundamental concepts of International Relations theory--balance of power theory--by examining insights from historical analysis of interwar and post-Cold War cases.

Visions of Victory

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521852548
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (525 download)

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Book Synopsis Visions of Victory by : Gerhard L. Weinberg

Download or read book Visions of Victory written by Gerhard L. Weinberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-04-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visions of Victory, first published in 2005, explores the views of eight leaders of the major powers of World War II - Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek, Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle, and Roosevelt. He compares their visions of the future in the event of victory. While the leaders primarily focused on fighting and winning the war, their decisions were often shaped by their aspirations for the future. What emerges is a startling picture of postwar worlds. After exterminating the Jews, Hitler intended for all Slavs to die so Germans could inhabit Eastern Europe. Mussolini and Hitler wanted extensive colonies in Africa. Churchill hoped for the re-emergence of British and French empires. De Gaulle wanted to annex the northwest corner of Italy. Stalin wanted to control Eastern Europe. Roosevelt's vision included establishing the United Nations. Weinberg's comparison of the individual portraits of the war-time leaders is a highly original and compelling study of history that might have been.

Stalin and the Fate of Europe

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Author :
Publisher : Belknap Press
ISBN 13 : 067423877X
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin and the Fate of Europe by : Norman M. Naimark

Download or read book Stalin and the Fate of Europe written by Norman M. Naimark and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Norris and Carol Hundley Award Winner of the U.S.–Russia Relations Book Prize A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year The Cold War division of Europe was not inevitable—the acclaimed author of Stalin’s Genocides shows how postwar Europeans fought to determine their own destinies. Was the division of Europe after World War II inevitable? In this powerful reassessment of the postwar order in Europe, Norman Naimark suggests that Joseph Stalin was far more open to a settlement on the continent than we have thought. Through revealing case studies from Poland and Yugoslavia to Denmark and Albania, Naimark recasts the early Cold War by focusing on Europeans’ fight to determine their future. As nations devastated by war began rebuilding, Soviet intentions loomed large. Stalin’s armies controlled most of the eastern half of the continent, and in France and Italy, communist parties were serious political forces. Yet Naimark reveals a surprisingly flexible Stalin, who initially had no intention of dividing Europe. During a window of opportunity from 1945 to 1948, leaders across the political spectrum, including Juho Kusti Paasikivi of Finland, Wladyslaw Gomulka of Poland, and Karl Renner of Austria, pushed back against outside pressures. For some, this meant struggling against Soviet dominance. For others, it meant enlisting the Americans to support their aims. The first frost of Cold War could be felt in the tense patrolling of zones of occupation in Germany, but not until 1948, with the coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade, did the familiar polarization set in. The split did not become irreversible until the formal division of Germany and establishment of NATO in 1949. In illuminating how European leaders deftly managed national interests in the face of dominating powers, Stalin and the Fate of Europe reveals the real potential of an alternative trajectory for the continent.

The Red Flag

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Author :
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN 13 : 0802189792
Total Pages : 567 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Red Flag by : David Priestland

Download or read book The Red Flag written by David Priestland and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The best and the most accessible one-volume history of communism now available . . . A far-reaching, vividly written account.” —Foreign Affairs In The Red Flag, Oxford professor David Priestland tells the epic story of a movement that has taken root in dozens of countries across two hundred years, from its birth after the French Revolution to its ideological maturity in nineteenth-century Germany to its rise to dominance (and subsequent fall) in the twentieth century. Beginning with the first modern Communists in the age of Robespierre, Priestland examines the motives of thinkers and leaders including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Che Guevara, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Gorbachev, and many others. Priestland also shows how Communism, in all its varieties, appealed to different societies for different reasons, in some as a response to inequalities and in others more out of a desire to catch up with the West. But paradoxically, while destroying one web of inequality, Communist leaders were simultaneously weaving another. It was this dynamic, together with widespread economic failure and an escalating loss of faith in the system, that ultimately destroyed Soviet Communism itself. At a time when global capitalism is in crisis and powerful new political forces have arisen to confront Western democracy, The Red Flag is essential reading if we are to apply the lessons of the past to navigating the future. “Detailed and scholarly but written in lively prose, this is a rich, satisfying account of the most successful utopian political movement in history.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Themes in Modern European History, 1890-1945

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134222564
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (342 download)

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Book Synopsis Themes in Modern European History, 1890-1945 by : Nicholas Atkin

Download or read book Themes in Modern European History, 1890-1945 written by Nicholas Atkin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-11-26 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Themes in Modern European History, 1890–1945 brings together an international team of scholars to address an eclectic range of developments and issues in European history in the period between 1890 and the end of the Second World War. This lively collection of essays adopts a thematic approach, in order to explore comprehensively a period of great change and upheaval in Europe. Concentrating on the main powers in Europe, from Germany, Italy and Russia, to the UK and France, the book links together developments in society, the economy, politics and culture, and establishes them in their political framework. Specially commissioned chapters discuss key issues such as: popular culture the relationship between East and West intellectual and cultural trends the origins and impact of two world wars communism, dictatorship and liberal democracy the relationship of Europe with the wider world. Including a chronology, maps and a glossary, as well as suggestions for further reading, this comprehensive volume is an invaluable and authoritative resource for students of modern European history.

World War II

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108496091
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis World War II by : Evan Mawdsley

Download or read book World War II written by Evan Mawdsley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World in 1937 -- Japan and China, 1937-1940 -- Hitler's Border Wars, 1938-1939 -- Germany Re-fights World War I, 1939 fights World War I,1939-1940 -- Wars of Ideology, 1941-1942 -- The Red Army versus the Wehrmacht, 1942-1944 -- Japan's Lunge for Empire, 1941-1942 -- Defending the Perimeter: Japan, 1942-1944 -- The 'World Ocean' and Allied Victory, 1939-1945 -- The European Periphery, 1940-1944 -- Wearing down Germany, 1942-1944 -- Victory in Europe, 1944-1945 -- End and Beginning in Asia, 1945 -- Conclusion.

The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393651754
Total Pages : 1084 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia by : Richard Overy

Download or read book The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia written by Richard Overy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2006-01-17 with total page 1084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A book of great importance; it surpasses all others in breadth and depth."--Commentary If the past century will be remembered for its tragic pairing of civilized achievement and organized destruction, at the heart of darkness may be found Hitler, Stalin, and the systems of domination they forged. Their lethal regimes murdered millions and fought a massive, deadly war. Yet their dictatorships took shape within formal constitutional structures and drew the support of the German and Russian people. In the first major historical work to analyze the two dictatorships together in depth, Richard Overy gives us an absorbing study of Hitler and Stalin, ranging from their private and public selves, their ascents to power and consolidation of absolute rule, to their waging of massive war and creation of far-flung empires of camps and prisons. The Nazi extermination camps and the vast Soviet Gulag represent the two dictatorships in their most inhuman form. Overy shows us the human and historical roots of these evils.

Stalinism and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939–40

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319946463
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (199 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalinism and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939–40 by : Malcolm L. G. Spencer

Download or read book Stalinism and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939–40 written by Malcolm L. G. Spencer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-25 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an illuminating bridge between the political and social dimensions of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40. The conflict represented a significant crisis for the Soviet Union, inspiring international condemnation and a significant loss of face for its supporters, both at home and abroad. The focus of this study is not upon the military dynamics of the war, but upon its ability to influence events, interpretations and interactions between agents and institutions within the Soviet Union and the wider international communist movement. Through original archival research, this book considers the ways in which the Soviet leadership reacted to the crisis, the tools at its disposal, and the effectiveness with which it managed to manipulate and control the spread of information through official and unofficial channels. It contributes to a more complete and complex picture of the inter-related nature of Soviet politics, propaganda and mass media in this period.

Stalin's War

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Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541672771
Total Pages : 818 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin's War by : Sean McMeekin

Download or read book Stalin's War written by Sean McMeekin and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin—not Hitler—was the animating force of World War II in this major new history. World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war. Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary. McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army. This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the current world order.