Stafford Cripps cut an incongruous figure in British politics in the 1930s. His fortuitous appointment as Ambassador to Moscow in 1940 secured him a prominent position in the War Cabinet. His meticulously kept diary describes the change in his political fortune and bears witness to key German-Soviet events during World War 2.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the lifting of the "Iron Curtain" and the withering away of Communist ideology had evoked tremendous hopes for a unified Europe, a region which now also encompasses the East, including a democratic and economically reformed Russia.
This volume of essays dwells on the challenge facing Russia in establishing its new identity which will have a direct bearing on the course its foreign policy is likely to steer in the future.
Gabriel Gorodetsky unravels President Putin's efforts to re-establish Russia's position as a major power, attempting to reconcile Russia's traditional national interests with the newly emerging social and political entity taking shape at home. The book's analysis of Russia's role in various conflict regions the Balkans, Chechnya, the Middle East and China demonstrates how this process is being affected by various constraints, particularly those imposed by the exigencies of a diffused "New World Order," in which contradictory forces, such as globalization, regionalism and US unilateralism, seem to reign supreme, especially following the events of 11 September 2001.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the withering away of Communist ideology had evoked tremendous hopes for a unified Europe, a region which now also encompasses the East, including a democratic and economically reformed Russia.

A comprehensive assessment of Soviet relations with the West, set in the context of the emergence of a new Russia. This volume anlayzes the formulation of foreign policy during the period from the first decade of the Bolshevik Revolution, through the gradual erosion of ideological differences.

Highlights of the extraordinary wartime diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London The terror and purges of Stalin's Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maisky's diary, never before published in English, grippingly documents Britain's drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Churchill's rise to power, the German invasion of Russia, and the intense debate over the opening of the second front. Maisky was distinguished by his great sociability and access to the key players in British public life. Among his range of regular contacts were politicians (including Churchill, Chamberlain, Eden, and Halifax), press barons (Beaverbrook), ambassadors (Joseph Kennedy), intellectuals (Keynes, Sidney and Beatrice Webb), writers (George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells), and indeed royalty. His diary further reveals the role personal rivalries within the Kremlin played in the formulation of Soviet policy at the time. Scrupulously edited and checked against a vast range of Russian and Western archival evidence, this extraordinary narrative diary offers a fascinating revision of the events surrounding the Second World War.

Lenin's death at the beginning of 1924 coincided with an exhaustive search by the USSR for a modus vivendi with the capitalist world. In laying the foundations of peaceful co-existence, priority was given to the cultivation of relations with Britain. This study examines the British government's various responses to the Soviet overtures. The scope of the work ranges from Labour's de jure recognition of the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1924 to the Conservatives' severance of relations in May 1927. The bulk of the study is set against the background of rapidly deteriorating relations and traces the unsparing measures employed by the Russians to forestall an open breach. Equal attention is paid to the Soviet government's straightforward diplomatic moves and to activities under the auspices of Comintern and the Soviet trade unions which rallied support without regard to frontiers or international protocol. The main aim was to strengthen the security and economic recovery of the Soviet Union, but revolutionary aspirations remain on the agenda.

This book offers a lively revisionist account of a crucial phase in the life of Stafford Cripps: his meteoric rise from the radical fringe of Parliament on the eve of the war to membership of the War Cabinet in 1942. Cripps' ambassadorship to Moscow was of prime importance in view of the dramatic events during this period - the German conquest of Europe, Britain's struggle for survival and Russia's transformation from neutral to belligerent. Dr Gorodetsky assesses how Britain adapted to react to the changing circumstances and examines the recurrent controversy between Cripps and Churchill over Anglo-Soviet relations. New perspectives are opened on related issues such as the role of the civil service in policymaking, the British and Soviet appreciations of and reactions to intelligence on the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union and the origins of the controversies over assistance to Russia, the launching of the Second Front and the frontier issues.

This important book draws on vital new archival material to unravel the mystery of Hitler's invasion of Russia in 1941 and Stalin's enigmatic behavior on the eve of the attack. Gabriel Gorodetsky challenges the currently popular view that Stalin was about to invade Germany when Hitler made a preemptive strike. He argues instead that Stalin was actually negotiating for European peace, asserting that Stalin followed an unscrupulous Realpolitik that served well-defined geopolitical interests by seeking to redress the European balance of power. Gorodetsky substantiates his argument through the most thorough scrutiny ever of Soviet archives for the period, including the files of the Russian foreign ministry, the general staff, the security forces, and the entire range of military intelligence available to Stalin at the time. According to Gorodetsky, Stalin was eagerly anticipating a peace conference where various accords imposed on Russia would be revised. But the delusion of being able to dictate a new European order blinded him to the lurking German danger, and his erroneous diagnosis of the political scene-colored by his perennial suspicion of Great Britain-led him to misconstrue the evidence of his own and Britain's intelligence services. Gorodetsky highlights the sequence of military blunders that resulted from Stalin's determination to appease Germany-blunders that provide the key to understanding the calamity that befell Russia on 22 June 1941.

The complete diaries that Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London, kept between 1932 and 1943 Confiscated by Soviet authorities in the 1950s, the diaries of Ivan Maisky, the USSR's ambassador to Great Britain from 1932 to 1943, have been unearthed, annotated, and edited for publication in a three-volume set that Niall Ferguson predicts "will stand as one of the great achievements of twenty-first century historical scholarship." Maisky's revelations illuminate Soviet foreign policy in the years prior to and during World War II, providing fascinating perspectives on London's political life and climate, key figures and events, and the Kremlin rivalries that influenced Soviet policy. Volume 1: The Rise of Hitler and the Gathering Clouds of War, 1932-1938 Volume 2: The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the Battle of Britain, 1939-1940 Volume 3: The German Invasion of Russia and the Forging of the Grand Alliance, 1941-19