Synopses & Reviews
This volume represents the first direct dialogue between foremost Western and Russian scholars on a topic distorted for decades by preconceived ideological and political ideas. The contributions were selected with the aim of examining both the military and the diplomatic aspects of the period under a single spotlight, thereby overcoming a severe flaw of existing research in this field. They offer new perspectives on Russian intelligence on the eve of the war, Hitler's planning of Barabarossa, and the Balkans as a bone of contention between Germany and the Allied powers. Aided by recently declassified Russian and Western archival material, the articles form an innovative and coherent analysis of Stalin's policies on the eve of the German invasion.