Assured Victory

How "Stalin the Great" Won the War, but Lost the Peace

Albert L. Weeks

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780313391668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

This book documents dictator Joseph Stalin's brilliant tactics as well as missteps in taking preemptive actions that guaranteed ultimate victory over the German invaders. It also covers the policies implemented after the war that made the Soviet Union a menace to world peace and led to collapse of Soviet rule. A detailed reexamination of historical facts indicates that Stalin could deserve to be regarded as a "great leader." Yet Stalin clearly failed as his nation's leader in a post-World War II milieu, where he delivered the Cold War instead of rapid progress and global cooperation. It is the proof of both Stalin's brilliance and blunders that makes him such a fascinating figure in modern history. Today, most of the Russian population acknowledges that Stalin achieved "greatness." The Soviet dictator's honored place in history is largely due to Stalin successfully attending to the Soviet Union's defense needs in the 1930s and 1940s, and leading the USSR to victory in the war on the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany and its allies. This book provides an overdue critical investigation of how the Soviet leader's domestic and foreign policies actually helped produce this victory, and above all, how Stalin's timely support of a wartime alliance with the Western capitalist democracies assured the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Assured Victory
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Note on Transliteration
• Introduction
• PART ONE: Age of Dictators
• 1 Stalin: The Twentieth Century’s Second Dictator
• 2 Stalin’s Methods and Accomplishments
• 3 The Vozhd’ Prepares for War
• 4 The World as Seen from Stalin’s Kremlin
• 5 Soviet Two-Track Policy
• 6 Soviet Pro-German Posture
• PART TWO: Stalin Prepares for War
• 7 The Myth of Collective Security
• 8 America in Stalin’s Future
• 9 Nazi-Soviet Pacts and Aftermath
• 10 Pre-Barbarossa War Plans
• PART THREE: The War and Its Aftermath
• 11 Stalin Bluffs and Defeats Wehrmacht
• 12 Epilogue: Winning the War, Losing the Peace
• Appendix I: Stalin, Soviet Premier, Broadcast to the People of the Soviet Union
• Appendix II: Stalin’s Biography in Current Russian Military Encyclopedia
• Appendix III : Stalin’s Speech at the Reception in the Kremlin in Honor of the Commanders of the Red Army
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index