Russia at War: 1941-1945

Foreword Introduction PART ONE. PRELUDE TO WAR I. Russia’s 1939 Dilemma II. The Soviet-German Pact III. The Partition of Poland IV. From the Finnish War to the German Invasion of France V. Russia and the Fall of France—Baltic States and Bessarabia VI. Russia and the Battle of Britain: a Psychological Turning-Point? VII. Display of Russian Military Might—Molotov’s Tragi-comic Visit to Berlin VIII. “1941—it will be a Happy Year” IX. The Last Weeks of Peace PART TWO. FROM THE INVASION TO THE BATTLE OF MOSCOW I. Soviet Unpreparedness in June 1941 II. The Invasion III. Molotov and Stalin Speak IV. Smolensk: the First Check to the Blitzkrieg V. Close-Up One: Moscow at the Beginning of the War VI. Close-Up Two: Autumn Journey to the Smolensk Front VII. Advance on Leningrad VIII. Rout in the Ukraine: “Khrushchev versus Stalin” IX. The Evacuation of Industry X. Battle of Moscow Begins—The October 16 Panic XI. Battle of Moscow II—Stalin’s Holy Russia Speech XII. The Moscow Counter-Offensive XIII. The Diplomatic Scene of the First Months of the Invasion PART THREE. THE LENINGRAD STORY I. The Dead of Leningrad II. The Enemy Advances III. Three Million Trapped IV. The Ladoga Lifeline V. The Great Famine VI. The Ice Road VII. Leningrad Close-Up VIII. Why Leningrad “Took It” IX. A Note on Finland PART FOUR. THE BLACK SUMMER OF 1942 I. Close-Up: Moscow in June 1942 II. The Anglo-Soviet Alliance III. Three Russian Defeats: Kerch, Kharkov and Sebastopol IV. The Renewal of the German Advance V. Patrie-en-Danger and the Post-Rostov Reforms VI. Stalin Ropes in the Church PART FIVE. STALINGRAD I. Stalingrad: the Chuikov Story II. The “Stalingrad” months in Moscow—the Churchill visit and after III. Russians encircle the Germans at Stalingrad IV. Stalingrad Close-Ups. • I: The Stalingrad Lifeline • II: The Scene of the Manstein Rout V. Stalingrad: the Agony VI. Close-Up: Stalingrad at the Time of the Capitulation VII. “Caucasus Round Trip” PART SIX. 1943: YEAR OF HARD VICTORIES—THE POLISH TANGLE I. After Stalingrad—The Birth of “Stalin’s Military Genius” II. The Germans and the Ukraine III. Kharkov under the Germans IV. The Economic Effort of 1942–3—the Red Army’s New Look—Lend-Lease V. Before the Spring Lull of 1943—Stalin’s Warning—The Germans’ “Desert Policy” VI. The Technique of Building a New Poland VII. The Dissolution of the Comintern and Other Curious Events in the Spring of 1943 VIII. Kursk: Hitler Loses His Last Chance of Turning the Tide IX. Orel: Close-Up of a Purely Russian City under the Germans X. A Short Chapter on a Vast Subject: German Crimes in the Soviet Union XI. The Partisans in the Soviet-German War XII. Paradoxes of Soviet Foreign Policy in 1943—The Fall of Mussolini—The “Free German Committee” XIII. Stalin’s Little Nationalist Orgy after Kursk XIV. The Spirit of Teheran PART SEVEN. 1944: RUSSIA ENTERS EASTERN EUROPE I. Some Characteristics of 1944 II. Close-Up I: Ukrainian Microcosm III. Close-Up II: Odessa, Capital of Rumanian Transniestria IV. Close-Up III: Hitler’s Crimean Catastrophe V. The Lull Before D-Day—Stalin’s Flirtation with the Catholic Church—“Slav Unity” VI. The Russians and the Normandy Landing VII. German Rout in Belorussia: “Worse than Stalingrad” VIII. What Happened at Warsaw? IX. Close-Up: Lublin—the Maidanek Murder Camp X. Rumania, Finland and Bulgaria Pack Up XI. Churchill’s Second Moscow Visit XII. Stalin’s Horse-Trading with de Gaulle XIII. Alternative Policies and Ideologies towards the End of the War PART EIGHT. VICTORY—AND THE SEEDS OF THE COLD WAR I. Into Germany II. Yalta and After III. June, 1945: Berlin Under the Russians Only IV. The Three Months’ Peace V. Potsdam VI. The Short Russo-Japanese War—Hiroshima Selected Bibliography Chronological Table Acknowledgements