An important book by two members of a new generation of Russian
historians. Using newly (but somewhat arbitrarily) declassified
files, they have set out to explore the "background, psychology,
motives, and behavior of Soviet rulers" from Stalin to Khrushchev.
Zubok (Senior Fellow/National Security Archive, Washington) and
Pleshakov (Director, Pacific Studies/Institute of US and Canada,
Moscow) do not offer any major new interpretations of the period
but give instead an infinitely more nuanced understanding of the
forces that shaped Soviet policy. Among the surprises: the role
played by Stalin in the Korean War, when, after succumbing to Kim
Il Sung's pleas to sanction an attack on South Korea, he forced
Chinese intervention by being prepared to accept Kim's defeat.
Another is the bold policy advocated by Beria (once described by
Stalin as "our Himmler") after Stalin's death: He was willing to
throw over East Germany to secure detente with the West. The
authors suggest that the opposition to such moves was partly
generational, and that Khrushchev - the "last true believer" - was
in turn overthrown by a new generation "yearning for personal
security" and led by a group more cynical than revolutionary. Not
all of their interpretations are as persuasive: They view Roosevelt
and Churchill as helping "to soothe Stalin's ego," providing him
with "an important psychological motive that pushed him in the
direction of postwar cooperation." That push propelled Stalin, if
at all, for a very short time. But their analysis of the group that
surrounded Stalin and succeeded him - some well known in the West
and others (like Zhdanov, Beria, and Malenkov) less so - is vivid
and acute. The most careful, comprehensive, and balanced assessment
yet of what Wellington once called "the other side of the hill."
(Kirkus Reviews)
Using recently uncovered archival materials, personal interviews,
and a broad familiarity with Russian history and culture, two young
Russian historians have written a major interpretation of the Cold
War as seen from the Soviet shore. Covering the volatile period
from 1945 to 1962, Zubok and Pleshakov explore the personalities
and motivations of the key people who directed Soviet political
life and shaped Soviet foreign policy. They begin with the fearsome
figure of Joseph Stalin, who was driven by the dual dream of a
Communist revolution and a global empire. They reveal the scope and
limits of Stalin's ambitions by taking us into the world of his
closest subordinates, the ruthless and unimaginative foreign
minister Molotov and the Party's chief propagandist, Zhdanov, a man
brimming with hubris and missionary zeal. The authors expose the
machinations of the much-feared secret police chief Beria and the
party cadre manager Malenkov, who tried but failed to set Soviet
policies on a different course after Stalin's death. Finally, they
document the motives and actions of the self-made and
self-confident Nikita Khrushchev, full of Russian pride and party
dogma, who overturned many of Stalin's policies with bold
strategizing on a global scale. The authors show how, despite such
attempts to change Soviet diplomacy, Stalin's legacy continued to
divide Germany and Europe, and led the Soviets to the split with
Maoist China and to the Cuban missile crisis. Zubok and Pleshakov's
groundbreaking work reveals how Soviet statesmen conceived and
conducted their rivalry with the West within the context of their
own domestic and global concerns and aspirations. The authors
persuasively demonstrate thatthe Soviet leaders did not seek a
conflict with the United States, yet failed to prevent it or bring
it to conclusion. They also document why and how Kremlin
policy-makers, cautious and scheming as they were, triggered the
gravest crises of the Cold War in Korea, Berlin, and Cuba.
General
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