Fascinating, but flawed

I've read a wide range of books on this subject. This is easily one of the more interesting analyses. The author grasps thoroughly the basic point that many have struggled with, that as another great historian has said about the Soviets, 'they were Communists, it wasn't something that they put on in public, it was what they sincerely were.' There are a number of egregious errors, despite the authors praise of his editors. Just to pick up one, referring to Alan Brooke as an Airforce officer, for example, how difficult was that to check? If you're going to discuss military equipment, it might be a good idea to understand what you're talking about. The author doesn't seem to have a firm grasp of where the crew members in a tank are placed, if you want to mention technical faults in T34s, of which there were a great many, it's better to focus on real issues than mangle some that, seemingly, the author doesn't understand himself. For me, that simply undermines credibility elsewhere. That said, the political, diplomatic & economic arenas are what this book is about. The assessment of the roles of Roosevelt and Churchill, and their advisers, especially the advisers is brutal, but firmly based on the evidence base within the text. As a British taxpayer it still rankles that we not only paid our lend-lease debts in full, including interest, having bankrupted our country by 1940; but that the enemy, dedicated to the destruction of our society, were simply had theirs written off at 2cents on the dollar, in 1951. It's on a par with the British [Labour] Governments decision to sell the Rolls-Royce Nene to the Soviets, which went on to power the MiG 15, which our own pilots faced in Korea. Part of a long tale of Communist technology theft, from 1920 onwards, aided and abetted by western companies & governments. As the man himself said, 'When we hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope we use'. Lend-Lease has to be the biggest & best example of that, and the US let the Soviets off the debt. We deserved the cold war, we created it, this book tells that story.

5 people found this helpful

Excellent revisionist account of Russia in WW2

A gripping listen from the opening paragraphs. The arguments are strong and original. Some facts are just wrong. 2nd SS Panzer was not withdrawn from the Eastern Front after DDay, it was already in France and Max Hastings has written a book about it’s route to Normandy. I was expecting a final chapter to pull everything together, to explain WHY America was so soft on Stalin so was a little disappointed with the last chapters. Overall an excellent listen.

2 people found this helpful

Stunningly revelatory, a must listen!

I'm normally not partial to explicitly revisionist historical works, as more often than not, they are revisionist just for the sake of being revisionist to make sales, drum up controversy or they are written from a clearly ideological point of view. This book isn't anything like that, it's revisionist to correct major past mistakes with new evidence and a new more objective look at the subject matter. Mind you, some of it is very different from all the other books I've read on the subject, so it does require some more investigation on my part to fully ensure the picture given here is correct, but a very strong case is certainly made.
This book sheds light on the true monstrosity of Stalin and the Soviet state and especially the Western leaders who enabled the Soviets to become a dominant world power and knowingly ignored their heinous crimes. This is a must listen for anyone interested in WW2, history in general or anyone wanting to know why things stand as they do in the current world. It's especially satisfying to have the lies and accepted narratives of the media and academia revealed, as they have always shielded the Soviet Union and communists in general, especially in the current climate where any discussion on these matters is frowned upon or even censored in the West. I can't recommend this highly enough!

2 people found this helpful

Perspective Altering

My entire view of WW II has been changed by this book, Stalin The Pawnmaster

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Essential reading

Firstly, the narration of this book was fantastic. Kevin Stillwell does a very good job, even at 1.2x speed. If I could select a narrator for any history book he would be high on my list of picks.

The clear narration is due obviously in part to the prose of Sean McMeekin who does a good job of making this topic enjoyable to a person first dipping into the subject.

Without going into too much detail the two most shocking things I learned from listening to this book were:

1. The extent to which the USSR had moles/spies at some of the highest levels in the F.D. Roosevelt administration and how they with direction from their Soviet handlers guided US foreign policy in a direction favourable to the Soviet Union. This discovery has spurred on further reading and it seems that this communist penetration was a long time in the making, starting in the 1920s. For further reading on this see Eugene Lyon’s “The Red Decade”. Another very surprising aspect of this is the possibility that US foreign policy towards Japan was influenced by Soviet spies in the administration.

2. The amount of Lend-Lease aid received by the USSR from the USA. Prior to reading I had the impression that it was the USSRs superior manpower which led them to victory over Germany. This book paints a different picture, instead we have the USSR getting hammered by the Germans, who had during the initial few weeks of Operation Barbarossa, when comparing irretrievable losses, had a man for man advantage of 35:1. The Germans were able to maintain very favourable ratios like these until late into Barbarossa with the USSR only being able to tip the scales in their favour after receiving billions in Lend-Lease aid in the form of war materiel and other items and with the allies beginning to open a second front which would take German divisions on the eastern front away. It also seems that the USSR got away with not repaying their debts in full, compared to the United Kingdom who was still paying their Lend-lease debt into the 21st century.

All in all, I would highly recommend giving this book a listen. I think I will be going to buy a physical copy so that I might read it and better document the figures it mentions in my notes.

Interesting but error strewn

A revisionist view of WW2 with some great in depth research of Russian resources. Sadly there a number of errors that undermine it - e.g. Alanbrooke was CIGS not an air marshall. It all but says that Harry Hopkins was an NKVD asset without offering any evidence or suggesting he was a dupe. It becomes polemical in its latter stages and suggests that FDR and Churchill were responsible for the prolongation of the war. It loses sight that Hitler and then Japan started the conflagration.

Thought provoking but is neither magisterial or robust enough to change our core ideas as the publicity material suggests.

The Chess Grandmaster

Stalin’s War by Sean Mckeekin is refreshing, thoughtful and ultimately spectacular. It is the inconvenient truth we have been waiting for. Let’s tackle these parts first: it’s well written, flows perfectly and is easy to understand. The man is a good writer.

Now onto the content: The premise of the book is not that Joseph Stalin caused the Second World War as I have seen from other reviewers, who clearly don’t understand the book or have a sadistic love for the callous dictator. It is to explain that only one man was at the top and in charge of their state throughout the whole of the Second World War, from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 into VJ Day in 1945. This was the Man of Steel, Stalin. From this war he benefited massively, more than any other.

McKeekin looks to explain how he did this, through diplomatic skill and opportunity he gave no quarter; he made use of the fractured and strained relationships of the weakened allies to simply take and not give. Franklin D Roosevelt was a dying man and Winston S Churchill was in a precarious position having given up the British Empire and essentially sold the country to the USA in order to finance a fight against Nazi Germany. There in the east, waiting, lurking in the shadows was an equally evil regime which was waiting to pounce, and it did.

From carving up, and taking far more Polish land than the Third Reich to bullying and invading sovereign Finland, the Soviets did not start the war on friendly terms with the West. In fact they were viewed with as much mistrust and contempt as Germany and for good reason. Millions of free peoples were violated, enslaved and murdered. Atrocities such as the execution of 20,000 polish officers, which was covered up comes to mind. However in 1941 when Operation Barbarossa launched, this all changed. Swinging the pendulum back in favour of the allies and bringing sympathy to the USSR. From here the USA, allies and Roosevelt sold their souls to the devil to defeat the wicked despot Hitler. From supplying aluminium and butter at the detriment of their own people to abandoning allies in Poland and Yugoslavia Stalin took and the allies gave. Churchill saw through this and tried to resist, famously arguing against the summarily execution of German officers in Tehran, to which Stalin claimed he was only joking. But in being tied financially to the USA he had to choose his people over others. The list goes on from American pilots who crash landed on Soviet soil being imprisoned to Stalin making a terminally I’ll man travel 14,000 miles through dangerous airspace in winter for a meeting in Crimea. But then they were dealing with one of the most exceptional people in history. He believed in the cause, hated the western capitalists and feared any influence whatsoever on his regime.

The book shows a history of the war, with this man at the forefront and to me this perspective is so important and relatively unknown. In 1945 as the crowds in America and Britain waved flags and celebrated, terror, misery and death continued under the Soviet wing. As Poland was abandoned, one is reminded that the UK went to war to protect it. In sorrow it was abandoned, with the only solace being that the holocaust was stopped.

Interesting but flawed

The book tries to make a convincing case that Stalin was the real winner of World War 2. It is certainly provocative and entertaining for the most part, though it can get a little repetitive, especially when discussing US Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union.
The book is strongest when discussing Soviet expansionism during the period of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. All of this is widely known of course, but few histories look in detail at the territorial gains the Soviet Union made in this period (much of it kept by the Soviet Union and its successor states to this day). Yes, it was probably not realistic for the Western Powers to go to war with Stalin but then they could do little to help Poland either. The question of what would have happened if Britain and France had gone to the aid of Finland, or been provoked by the Soviet invasion of Poland to declare war on the Soviet Union, is one the great “what ifs” of World War 2. That they turned a blind eye to the latter is surely one of the greatest hypocrisies of history, but maybe it was a necessary one.
I am not convinced by the author’s arguments that the Soviets could not have defeated the Nazis without Western help. Recent research on the preparedness of the German army for war in the East suggest Barbarossa was doomed from the start. His attempts to smear Roosevelt - and to a lesser extent Churchill, as dupes of Stalin, spies within the US and “useful idiots” are not convincing either. They were well aware that Stalin was evil and untrustworthy. They were well aware that they would make compromises that would have consequences for millions of people who fell under Communist control. It is difficult to see what else they could have done other than allow millions of people to be treated as subhumans, enslaved and killed by the Nazis. Yes, Eastern Europe suffered 50 years of communist rule but at least most of their children and grandchildren can live in relatively free societies. Had the Nazis won, many of them would not even have been born. Western Europe, including ironically Italy and West Germany, experienced stability and (admittedly delayed in the Iberian nations) democracy.
Probably the most jaw dropping moment for me was right near the end when the author criticises Churchill for not taking Hess’s “peace mission” of May 1941 seriously. We are in conspiracy theory territory here and it is unworthy of a serious academic historian.
So, in summation I would say it is clearly shown that the Soviets gained a lot from World War 2 and they literally got away with murder, but I don’t think many people have ever had much argument with this. However, America emerged as a superpower and Britain emerged free, if greatly diminished, though few would argue its loss of Empire in subsequent years was a bad thing. That they did so was in large part to the sacrifices of the Soviet people. Yes they could have left the Nazis and Soviets to duke it out but the consequences of that would have been a dark age which might still be ongoing. So listen or read and enjoy but not without consulting other books for much needed balance.

An eye opening look at WWII

Viewing WWII from a different perspective it was easy to become frustrated within our late leaders. Full of statistics it was never boring and the performance was excellent

Sorry but this is boring beyond endurance

There is exciting and innovative history and there is the dry, plodding procession of detail. This is the latter. The details are great. It is accurate history but like eating sandpaper. Returned.