New answers tagged soviet-union
1
If you haven't read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I would highly recommend him. While not exclusively about WWII his books discuss WWII soviet soldiers both during the war and what they faced after the war. Solzhenitsyn especially focuses on after WWII and those who didn't fit neatly back into Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn himself was a WWII soldier who followed ...
2
Stalin was biggest, but was not only shark in the pool
History of power struggles in USSR and other communist countries (China would be one example) is often murky and incomprehensible for casual observer, especially Western observer. You have many factions and cliques, and real differences between them are hard to comprehend. Those differences are ...
2
There are some good descriptions, but mainly in Russian fiction and memoirs, for example:
Vasili Grossman, Life and fate (there is an English translation),
Victor Astafiev, The Cursed and the Slain,
Also the memoirs of Lev Kopelev, and short stories of Vasil Bykov.
There is also a very high quality, realistic movie: Torpedo bombers (Торпедоносцы) (can be ...
-3
He was waiting for a reason to kill all of his criticizers and to consolidate his power. The assassination of Kirov was that reason. For dictators like Stalin and others, every single unimportant reason can be a motivation.
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I think you are misreading the situation from 1945 onward, and even earlier. There was a clear rivalry between the western Allies and the Soviet Union to control the post-war situation in Europe.
The US and UK were aware that Communism ultimately wanted a world revolution under Soviet leadership, for the benefit of the "oppressed" workers worldwide. ...
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