Stalin's Generals

Most military history deals in the big picture; the movements of armies, the strategy of campaigns. But the training, experience and personalities of the generals themselves, and the nature of their relations with their peers and political leaders, can be unexpectedly illuminating, going well beyond Tolstoy's musings about the effects of Napoleon's cold in the head. This is particularly true in the case of Stalin's generals. How could Soviet generals, whose independent judgement was essential to success, stand up to a bloodthirsty dictator who was ignorant of military skill? Dr Harold Shukman, author and editor of books on the Russian Revolution, has assembled an international group of distinguished military historians. Their portraits of some twenty-five generals - and a final chapter on those who were purged in 1937-38, 'Stalin's Ghosts' - throw light on the relations between a new military elite and a totalitarian leader, at a time when the very existence of the Soviet state was in the balance.