Stalinism at War

"Masterfully told and compellingly reinterpreted." The Moscow Times Stalinism at War tells the epic story of the Soviet Union in World War Two. Starting with Soviet involvement in the war in Asia and ending with a bloody counter-insurgency in the borderlands of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics, the Soviet Union's war was both considerably longer and more all-encompassing than is sometimes appreciated. Here, acclaimed scholar Mark Edele explores the complex experiences of both ordinary and extraordinary citizens - Russians and Koreans, Ukrainians and Jews, Lithuanians and Georgians, men and women, loyal Stalinists and critics of his regime - to reveal how the Soviet Union and leadership of a ruthless dictator propelled Allied victory over Germany and Japan. In doing so, Edele weaves together material on the society and culture of the wartime years with high-level politics and unites the military, economic and political history of the Soviet Union with broader popular histories from below. The result is an engaging, intelligent and authoritative account of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1949.

Mark Edele is Professor and Hansen Chair in History at University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Soviet Union: A Short History (2019), Stalin's Defectors: How Red Army Soldies became Hitler's Collaborators, 1941-1945 (2017) and Stalinist Society, 1928-1953 (2011), amongst others.

List of Illustrations List of Maps List of Tables and Charts Acknowledgements Introduction: Stalinism at War, 1937-49 1. Preparing for War 2. The War begins in the East, 1937-39 3. War in the West, 1939-40 4. Armageddon, 1941-42 5. Recovery, 1941-42 6. Triumph, 1943-45 7. War of Ideologies 8. The War after the War, 1944-49 9. Impact and Aftermath Appendix: Maps Notes Index