Stalin's Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War

Stalin (literally, "man of steel") was not a heroic superman but someone who killed or displaced millions during the 1930s through forced collectivization and the purges of perceived enemies of the people with the aim of maintaining the nascent communist state (and his own power). Gellately (history, Florida State Univ.; Backing Hitler) uses recently uncovered documents to show just how acutely Stalin was aware of the opportunity to expand communism, and with it Soviet power, as the Red Army overran eastern Europe on the way to Nazi Germany. The weakened countries through those troops marched were occupied and eventually forged into the Eastern Bloc. Gellately is masterful at utilizing Soviet and Western sources to clarify the long-term consequences of Stalin's push to power. Alongside recent works such as V.M. Zubok's A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev and Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956, which detail the human cost and larger Soviet political strategy, this book should become a go-to read on how the Cold War developed.