McMeekin, Sean. Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II. New York City: Basic Books, 2021.
Sean
McMeekin is known for his work early 20th Century Russian and
Ottoman history, with special emphasis on the World War I and Russian
Revolution era. In Stalin’s War he
takes a deep look into World War II and presents a revisionist narrative that
is certain to grab attention. With Stalin’s
War, McMeekin seeks to challenge the conventional narrative, that the
Second World War was “a heroic struggle between good and evil.” In particular he
takes issues with the notion that Hitler was the personal driving force of the
worldwide conflict. Instead it should be Stalin, head of the Soviet Union, who
encouraged the other great powers to tear each other apart so that his
communist nation could swoop in and exert its power over the world. McMeekin
points out that Stalin’s influence was felt in both the European and Pacific
Wars, while Nazi Germany only had a significant role in the former.
The Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact enabled Stalin to make a series of easy conquests in Eastern Europe while the Germans fought a much tougher war against the Western Allies. The Soviets got into a brief war with the Japanese, but were successful. Instead of using their leverage to drive back the Japanese for good, the Soviets gave them a free hand to continue their war with China. This kept Japan and Chiang’s Nationalists embroiled in the slog of war, while Mao’s Communists were able to sit back in their northern strongholds (McMeekin also points out that after 1945 the Soviets gave ample military resources to Mao with which to conquer China. The Americans by contrast withheld aid from Chiang and demanded that he form a peaceful government with the Communists, a totally unrealistic expectation). Stalin’s goal of making the great powers wear each other down through attrition was thrown off when Hitler struck him and rolled back all his 1939-1941 conquests. Now he had to go to the Western Allies for aid.
