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Title: Stalin's Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939-1941 by Albert L. Weeks ISBN: 0-7425-2192-3 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Stalin's plans for war
Comment: For a lot of Americans the best thing about the Soviet Union, or its saving moment, came in WW2. After Hitler's surprise attack (June 1941) the USSR became one more victim of Nazi aggression and joined together with US and Allies to end that most horrid totalitarianism.
Albert Weeks provides an essential corrective to this view. Drawing on newly available documents and his wide reading in Russian historians, Weeks argues forcefully for the view that Stalin had long had an imperialist project in mind for Soviet expansion into Europe, and specifically had the aim of striking his "ally" Germany. Hitler did not end a healthy alliance but only managed to surprise Stalin before Stalin could surprise him.
For a book in Soviet history, which has been loaded down with didactic interpretations on both sides, this book is refreshingly reasonable. Weeks weighs and assesses each bit of evidence he finds. He does not force evidence to fit his interpretation when there is room for doubt. And he is morally serious without being preachy.
Balanced and thoughtful histories of the USSR are finally possible. Who knows what other archives are going to be released? Which former Soviet officials will come clean about old state secrets? If Albert Weeks's book is any sign, reassessments of the USSR's past have a promising future.
Rating: 4
Summary: Where was the editor?
Comment: Yet another good book spoiled by lousy editing.
1. Russians do not have middle names. It should be Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov, or A.D. Sakharov, or Andrey Sakharov, but NOT Andrey D. Sakharov.
2. There are A LOT of mistakes in spelling of Russian names and book titles.
3. In two Greek words (allegedly by Plato), chresimos pseudos, I found 3 (THREE) errors: there are no zetas it those words at all, only sigmas.
4. By the time of Versailles Treaty, Romania had been on the map of Europe for about 50 years; it had not been created as a result of that treaty . . .
etc., etc., etc.
I do not believe Professor Weeks doesn't know when Romania was created. I blame copyeditor and proofreader . . . if there were any.
Rating: 5
Summary: Stalin's plans for a pre-emptive strike against Hitler
Comment: This is an important new book by an expert on Soviet history in updated Paperback format.
Professor Weeks presents the reader with a lot of newly discovered secret information from documents from formerly closed Soviet archives.
Among these documents are transcripts of Stalin's famous toast to graduates of the Military academies from the 5th of May, 1941, and the text of Stalin's previously hotly disputed secret speech to the Soviet Politburo, dated August 19, 1939, just days before signing the Hitler-Stalin Pact including its secret protocol about the territorial division of Poland, the Baltics and Bessarabia. The text was discovered in Russian archives and has also been confirmed by diary entries of Comintern head Dimitrov. Stalin predicts that Germany will have to fight a long war against France and England, allowing the Soviet Union to sovietize not only defeated Germany but also France.
An even more important document is from the Soviet General Staff. It is a war plan against Germany, calling explicitly for a pre-emptive strike against German forces! The document, titled "Considerations of the Plan for the Strategic Deployment of the Armed forces of the Soviet Union in Case of War with Germany and its Allies", is dated May 15, 1941. It has been prepared mainly by General, later Marshal, A. Vasilievsky, Deputy Head of the Operations Department of the Soviet General Staff (Stavka). The Memorandum was presented to Stalin by Commissar of Defense S. Timoshenko and Chief of the General Staff G. Zhukov.
The document "Considerations..." (15 handwritten pages long) is explicitly calling for a pre-emptive strike against German forces.
This is fully in line with the offensive military doctrine of the Soviets that called for "Deep Operations" into enemy territory (a fact confirmed by many Soviet Officers and historians, but neglected and disputed by Colonel Glantz and historian Gorodetsky, both of whom are using pro-Soviet arguments throughout their books. In fact, Weeks deals both Glantz's and Gorodetsky's apologia of Stalin a deadly blow with his well researched book. Glantz and Gorodetsky have been granted access to Soviet archives precisely because they stick to the official Soviet historiography, I believe).
Weeks uses a number books and documents that have only recently been published in Russia, and thereby allows the reader to form his own opinion based on these materials. This is a great advantage over many other books that try to ignore every little detail that might contradict the author?s arguments. Some of the documents in this book have never been published in English language before in their entirety. The wealth of information Weeks is able to present Stalin's "offensist" intentions is convincing to anyone with an open mind.
There can be no doubt: Stalin had detailed plans of attacking Hitler, it just happened that Hitler managed to strike first.
The only criticism I have about this book is, that the "Considerations" are not published in their full length (The document has been fully published in Austria and Germany, however). Anyone with an interest in the latest revelations from Stalin's archives should read this fascinating book. Highly recommended!
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Title: Hitler's War and the War Path by David Irving, Walter Frentz ISBN: 1872197108 Publisher: Focal Point Pub. Date: 20 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $59.95 |
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Title: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw by Norman Davies ISBN: 0670032840 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 06 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
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Title: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans ISBN: 1594200041 Publisher: The Penguin Press HC Pub. Date: 05 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Surprise, Security, and the American Experience by John Lewis Gaddis ISBN: 0674011740 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 23 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023282 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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