Assured victory : how "Stalin the Great" won the war but lost the peace / Albert L. Weeks.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Fallout from the Medvedev Decree -- Poll on Stalin's greatness -- Revising school textbooks -- Historiographer's view toward writing history -- Part One: Age of Dictators. Stalin: the twentieth century's second dictator. Unique dictator ; Advantages enjoyed by Stalin ; Contrasts with Western leadership ; Stalin uses diplomacy as a weapon ; Stalin's personal qualities ; Dealing with the West and America ; Stalin's use of bluff ; A "master politician" -- Stalin's methods and accomplishments. The Stalin Cult ; Machiavellian methods ; Legacy of the cautious leader -- The Vozhd prepares for war. Consolidating the home front ; Were the purges justified? ; The Kirov case ; Mainstream historiography on the purges ; The watershed year -- The world as seen from Stalin's Kremlin. Foundation of German-Soviet relations ; Red Army-German military collaboration ; Soviet-Fascist totalitarian kinship ; Treacherous currents of Europe -- Soviet two-track policy. Counterpoint of early Soviet diplomacy, 1918-1930s ; Peredyshki ; Fomenting inter-imperialist tensions ; Diplomacy in Stalin's industrialization ; Stalin's emphasis on defense ; Trail of broken "Friendship" Treaties ; Comintern factor ; United Front (Lenin)/Popular Front (Stalin) -- Soviet pro-German posture. Early roots ; The Brest-Litovsk Precedent (1918) ; Straws in the wind ; The "Communazi" factor ; Stalin navigates European waters ; Far East dangers --

Part Two: Stalin Prepares for War. -- The myth of collective security. League weaknesses ; Soviet view toward the League ; Stalin's cautiousness -- . America in Stalin's future. Stalin watches America slide toward war ; Stalin's American affinities ; Stalin at the Eighteenth Party Congress ; Stalin's defensism ; Stalin on the West's plans ; The significance of Stalin's hints ; Stalin and the CPUSA ; American "Colossus" ; Stalin's hoped-for Lend-Lease ; A "Strange" U.S.-Soviet Alliance ; Stalin defends state interests ; Stalin and FDR ; Spies and agents of influence ; Stalin among the Big Three -- Nazi-Soviet pacts and aftermath. Controversy over Stalin's defense policies ; Specifics of Nazi-Soviet pacts and protocols ; Carving up the world ; New tensions ; Gaining territory by the Pacts -- Pre-Barbarossa war plans. Stalin's first reactions ; Early German successes ; Stalin's behavior on the dramatic day ; Development of historiography on Stalin's reactions ; New versions of Stalin's behavior on June 22 ; Additional observations and issues -- Part Three: The War and its Aftermath. Stalin bluffs and defeats Wehrmacht. Reassessing Stalin ; Stalin bluffs in the "Great Game" ; Barbarossa materializes ; Stalin's not-so-blind eye ; The "bluff" ; Stalin's costly errors ; Soviet weaknesses ; Stalin approves a modified Kutuzov Strategy ; Did the bluff pay off? ; Preventing a Russain "Gleiwitz" ; Stalin's military defense plan ; How "unprepared" was the RKKA? -- Winning the war, losing the peace. HInts of a coming Cold War, 1946 ; Cold War chronology ; A "new" Stalin? ; Today's Russian historians on the Cold War ; Assessing Stalin's alleged greatness -- Stalin, Soviet Premier, Broadcast to the People of the Soviet Union -- Stalin's biography in current Russian Military Encyclopedia -- Stalin's Speech at the Reception in the Kremlin in Honor of the Commanders of the Red Army.