The Red Army's leading operational theorist in the 1930s, Georgii Samoilovich Isserson was the mastermind behind the "deep operation"--the cornerstone of Soviet offensive operations in World War II. Drawing from an in-depth analysis of Isserson's numerous published and unpublished works, his arrest file in the former KGB archives, and interviews with his family, this book provides the first full-length biography of the man. The bulk of the narrative deals with the flowering of his intellectual talents from 1929 through 1941. Additional chapters deal with Isserson's arrest and his remaining 35 years, 14 of which were spent in labor camps and internal exile.

A major profile of the Soviet general credited with a decisive role in key World War II victories compares his legend with his achievements while surveying his eventful post-war experiences as Krushchev's disgraced defense minister. 15,000 first printing.

For Hitler and the German military, 1942 was a key turning point of World War II, as an overstretched but still lethal Wehrmacht replaced brilliant victories and huge territorial gains with stalemates and strategic retreats. In this major reevaluation of that crucial year, Robert Citino shows that the German army's emerging woes were rooted as much in its addiction to the "war of movement"-attempts to smash the enemy in "short and lively" campaigns-as they were in Hitler's deeply flawed management of the war. From the overwhelming operational victories at Kerch and Kharkov in May to the catastrophic defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad, Death of the Wehrmacht offers an eye-opening new view of that decisive year. Building upon his widely respected critique in The German Way of War, Citino shows how the campaigns of 1942 fit within the centuries-old patterns of Prussian/German warmaking and ultimately doomed Hitler's expansionist ambitions. He examines every major campaign and battle in the Russian and North African theaters throughout the year to assess how a military geared to quick and decisive victories coped when the tide turned against it. Citino also reconstructs the German generals' view of the war and illuminates the multiple contingencies that might have produced more favorable results. In addition, he cites the fatal extreme aggressiveness of German commanders like Erwin Rommel and assesses how the German system of command and its commitment to the "independence of subordinate commanders" suffered under the thumb of Hitler and chief of staff General Franz Halder. More than the turning point of a war, 1942 marked the death of a very old and traditional pattern of warmaking, with the classic "German way of war" unable to meet the challenges of the twentieth century. Blending masterly research with a gripping narrative, Citino's remarkable work provides a fresh and revealing look at how one of history's most powerful armies began to founder in its quest for world domination.

The prolific writer Boris Sokolov - author of biographies of Georgii Zhukov and others - returns with a new book on Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovskii (1898-1967): a Marshal of the Soviet Union and former Defence Minister, who like so many of those who made their name during the Great Patriotic War, joined the Tsarist Army at the outbreak of the First World War. Unlike the others, however, his service took him to France as a member of the Russian Legion - a move designed to show Russia's support for its French ally in the struggle against the Germans on the Western Front. Despite the Bolshevik coup and Soviet Russia's withdrawal from the war, Malinovskii elected to remain in France and serve with the French Army until the Armistice - after which he made his way back to Russia, where he joined the Red Army in the waning days of the Civil War. The young Malinovskii chose to remain in the army and rose steadily through its ranks. He was later sent to Spain as a Military Advisor to the Spanish Republic during that country's Civil War. This fortuitous posting not only allowed Malinovskii to gain valuable combat experience, but also kept him out of the country at a time when Stalin's military purge was gutting the Armed Forces. However, it is Malinovskii's service during the Great Patriotic War that constitutes the heart of this book. Sokolov traces his subject's rise from corps to army commander, and finally to the command of various fronts. During 1943-1944 the forces under Malinovskii's command played a major role in expelling the Germans from the Donets Basin, Southern Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Following the defeat of Germany, Malinovskii was assigned to command the Main Front in the brief war against Japan and remained as Commander-in-Chief of Soviet forces in the Far East for several years. He was summoned back to Moscow as Deputy Defence Minister and later took an active part in the removal of his boss, Georgii Zhukov, whom he replaced in 1957. It was under his decade-long tenure that the Soviet Armed Forces made the transition to a truly modern force - and changed the country's status from that of a regional power to superpower.

Georgii Samoilovich Isserson (1898-1976) was one of the most prescient and prolific authors on military art in the years preceding World War II. His theories greatly influenced the Red Army's conduct of operations and were instrumental in achieving victory over Germany. This book gathers together for the first time English translations of Isserson's most influential works, including some that are still classified. His writings on the preparation and conduct of the deep offensive operation--the deployment of tanks, mechanized infantry, air power and airborne troops to penetrate deeply echeloned defenses--also serve as a primer on how to construct a position to defeat such an attack. His well argued defense of the deep operation based on an examination of recent wars and his reminiscences about the people and events that shaped Soviet military theory in the 1930s are included.

This book documents dictator Joseph Stalin's brilliant tactics as well as missteps in taking preemptive actions that guaranteed ultimate victory over the German invaders. It also covers the policies implemented after the war that made the Soviet Union a menace to world peace and led to collapse of Soviet rule. A detailed reexamination of historical facts indicates that Stalin could deserve to be regarded as a "great leader." Yet Stalin clearly failed as his nation's leader in a post-World War II milieu, where he delivered the Cold War instead of rapid progress and global cooperation. It is the proof of both Stalin's brilliance and blunders that makes him such a fascinating figure in modern history. Today, most of the Russian population acknowledges that Stalin achieved "greatness." The Soviet dictator's honored place in history is largely due to Stalin successfully attending to the Soviet Union's defense needs in the 1930s and 1940s, and leading the USSR to victory in the war on the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany and its allies. This book provides an overdue critical investigation of how the Soviet leader's domestic and foreign policies actually helped produce this victory, and above all, how Stalin's timely support of a wartime alliance with the Western capitalist democracies assured the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945.

Widely regarded as the most accomplished general of World War II, the Soviet military legend Marshal Georgy Zhukov at last gets the full-scale biographical treatment he has long deserved. A man of indomitable will and fierce determination, Georgy Zhukov was the Soviet Union’s indispensable commander through every one of the critical turning points of World War II. It was Zhukov who saved Leningrad from capture by the Wehrmacht in September 1941, Zhukov who led the defense of Moscow in October 1941, Zhukov who spearheaded the Red Army’s march on Berlin and formally accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender in the spring of 1945. Drawing on the latest research from recently opened Soviet archives, including the uncensored versions of Zhukov’s own memoirs, Roberts offers a vivid portrait of a man whose tactical brilliance was matched only by the cold-blooded ruthlessness with which he pursued his battlefield objectives. After the war, Zhukov was a key player on the geopolitical scene. As Khrushchev’s defense minister, he was one of the architects of Soviet military strategy during the Cold War. While lauded in the West as a folk hero—he was the only Soviet general ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine—Zhukov repeatedly ran afoul of the Communist political authorities. Wrongfully accused of disloyalty, he was twice banished and erased from his country’s official history—left out of books and paintings depicting Soviet World War II victories. Piercing the hyperbole of the Zhukov personality cult, Roberts debunks many of the myths that have sprung up around Zhukov’s life and career to deliver fresh insights into the marshal’s relationships with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Eisenhower. A remarkably intimate portrait of a man whose life was lived behind an Iron Curtain of official secrecy, Stalin’s General is an authoritative biography that restores Zhukov to his rightful place in the twentieth-century military pantheon.