Stalin’s Other War

Longtime Soviet expert Albert L. Weeks has studied the newly-released information and come to a new conclusion about the Soviet Union's pre-war buildup_it was not precaution against German invasion at all. In fact, Weeks argues, the evidence now suggests Soviet mobilization was aimed at an eventual invasion of Nazi Germany.

On June 22, 1941, just less than two years after signing the Nazi-Soviet Agreements, Adolf Hitler's German army invaded the Soviet Union. The attack hardly came as a surprise to Josef Stalin; in fact, history has long held that Stalin spent the two intervening years building up his defenses against a Nazi attack. With the gradual declassifying of former Soviet documents, though, historians are learning more and more about Stalin's grand plan during the years 1939-1941. Longtime Soviet expert Albert L. Weeks has studied the newly-released information and come to a different conclusion about the Soviet Union's pre-war buildup_it was not precaution against German invasion at all. In fact, Weeks argues, the evidence now suggests Soviet mobilization was aimed at an eventual invasion of Nazi Germany. The Soviets were quietly biding their time between 1939 and 1941, allowing the capitalist powers to destroy one another, all the while preparing for their own Westward march. Stalin, Weeks shows, wasn't waiting for a Nazi attack_Hitler simply beat him to the punch.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Soviet Expansionist Ideology: Propaganda or Blueprint?
Chapter 3 Prewar Diplomacy and the Comintern
Chapter 4 The Soviets' Pro-German Posture
Chapter 5 Nazi-Soviet Agreements (1939-40)
Chapter 6 Stalin Prepares for What Kind of War
Chapter 7 Stalin's Response to "Barbarossa"— I
Chapter 8 Stalin's Response to "Barbarossa"— II
Chapter 9 Conclusions
Chapter 10 Appendix 1: Stalin's Third Speech, May 5, 1941
Chapter 11 Appendix 2: May 15, 1941, Memorandum
Chapter 12 Appendix 3: Stalin's Speech to the Politburo, August 19, 1939
Chapter 13 Appendix 4: Russia's New History Textbooks