Pre-publication subtitle: Soviet-German military cooperation in the interwar period.

Historians have heatedly debated the Soviet role in the origins of the Second World War for more than 50 years. At the centre of these controversies stands the question of Soviet relations with Nazi Germany and the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939. Drawing on a wealth of new material from the Soviet Archives, this detailed and original study analyses Moscow's response to the rise of Hitler, explains the origins of the Nazi-Soviet pact, and charts the road to Operation Barbarossa and the disaster of the surprise German attack on the USSR in June 1941.

19. Bartow, O.: A View from Below: Survival, Cohesion, and Brutality on the Eastern Front. Part IV: Soviet Politics and War Strategy, 1941. 20. Gorodetsky, G.: Stalin and Hitler's Attack on the Soviet Union. 21. Hoffmann, J.: The Soviet Union's Offensive Preparations in 1941. 22. Kirshin, Y.Y.: The Soviet Armed Forces on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War. 23. Bonwetsch, B.: The Purge of the Military and the Red Army's Operational Capability during the "Great Patriotic War". 24. Chor'kov, A, G.: The Red Army during the Initial Phase of the Great Patriotic War. 25. Harrison, M.: "Barbarossa": The Soviet Response, 1941. 26. Pinkus, B.: The Deportation of the German Minority in the Soviet Union, 1941-1945. 27. Volkogonow, D.A.: Stalin as Supreme Commander. Part V: Germany and the Soviet Union in International Politics. 28. Schönherr, K.: Neutrality, "Non-belligerence", or War: Turkey and the European Powers' Conflict of Interests, 1939-1941. 29. Petracchi, G.: Pinocchio, the Cat, and the Fox: Italy between Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941. 30. Menger, M.: Germany and the Finnish "Separate War" against the Soviet Union. 31. Krebs, G.: Japan and the German-Soviet War, 1941. 32. Kimball, W.F.: "They don't come out where you expect": Roosevelt Reacts to the German-Soviet War. 33. Kettenacker, L.: Great Britain and the German Attack on the Soviet Union. 34. Bourgeois, D: Operation "Barbarossa" and Switzerland. 35. Wegner, B.: Facing the Global War: Germany's strategic Dilemma after the Failure of "Blitzkrieg".

Das Buch ist eine Analyse von Aufstieg und Fall des sowjetischen Herrschaftssystems in dem Gebiet, das zur Zeit des Kalten Krieges "Osteuropa" genannt wurde, und der Rolle, die das Deutschlandproblem dabei gespielt hat. Gestützt auf die Auswertung neuer Quellen aus den Partei- und Staatsarchiven ehemals kommunistischerer Länder rekonstruiert es die folgende Entwicklung: die Teilung Deutschlands und dabei die Rolle der Sowjetunion unter Stalin; das eiserne Festhalten seiner Nachfolger an der Teilung; ihr zunehmendes Bewusstsein der hohen Kosten, welche die Aufrechterhaltung des imperialen Systems in Ostmitteleuropa verursachte; der Fehlschlag ihrer Anstrengungen, die wachsende wirtschaftliche und finanzielle Abhängigkeit der DDR von der Bundesrepublik zu verhindern; und schließlich die Gründe dafür, warum Gorbatschow die Auflösung des sowjetischen Herrschaftsbereichs in Ostmitteleuropa hinnahm und sogar der Mitgliedschaft des wiedervereinigten Deutschlands in der Nato zustimmte."Angesichts der russischen Okkupation der Krim, der anhaltenden Krise in der Ostukraine und der dadurch ausgelösten Gegenreaktionen von NATO und EU scheint sich der Kalte Krieg in Europa zurückgemeldet zu haben. Geeigneter kann der Zeitpunkt für die überarbeitete Neuauflage des sich inzwischen zu einem Standardwerk entwickelten Buches von Hannes Adomeit nicht sein. Seine profunde Kenntnis und Auseinandersetzung mit sowjetischer und russischer Politik seit fünf Jahrzehnten und sein Zugang zu neuem russischen Archivmaterial qualifiziert ihn zu einem der besten und erfahrensten Experten auf internationaler Ebene. Wer die sowjetische Politik nach dem II. Weltkrieg bis zur Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands und ihre Implikationen für die letzten 25 Jahre verstehen will, kommt an Adomeits Buch und seiner analytischen Brillanz nicht vorbei". Prof. Dr. h.c. Horst Teltschik, September 2015 "Of all of the analyses of the fall of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany, Hannes Adomeit's 1998 classic, "Imperial Overstretch", has stood the test of time. Its re-publication here by Nomos, with some modest updates by the author, will be welcomed by scholars, students, the policy community, and the informed public, as a trenchant interpretation of what happened to the 'Soviet bloc', but also as an introduction to the assertive imperial politics of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation." Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University, November 2015

Sunday, June 22, 1941: three million German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union as part of Hitler’s long-planned Operation Barbarossa, which aimed to destroy the Soviet Union, secure its land as lebensraum for the Third Reich, and enslave its Slavic population. From launching points in newly acquired Poland, in three prongs—North, Central, South—German forces stormed western Russia, virtually from the Baltic to the Black Sea. By late fall, the invasion had foundered against Russian weather, terrain, and resistance, and by December, it had failed at the gates of Moscow, but early on, as the Germans sliced through Russian territory and soldiers with impunity, capturing hundreds of thousands, it seemed as though Russia would fall. In the spirit of Martin Middlebrook’s classic First Day on the Somme, Craig Luther narrates the events of June 22, 1941, a day when German military might was at its peak and seemed as though it would easily conquer the Soviet Union, a day the common soldiers would remember for its tension and the frogs bellowing in the Polish marshlands. It was a day when the German blitzkrieg decimated Soviet command and control within hours and seemed like nothing would stop it from taking Moscow. Luther narrates June 22—one of the pivotal days of World War II—from high command down to the tanks and soldiers at the sharp end, covering strategy as well as tactics and the vivid personal stories of the men who crossed the border into the Soviet Union that fateful day, which is the Eastern Front in microcosm, representing the years of industrial-scale warfare that followed and the unremitting hostility of Germans and Soviets.

The treaty of Rapallo, concluded in 1922 between Germany and the Soviet Union, the two vanquished powers of the Great War, ranks high among the diplomatic coups de surprise of the twentieth century. Its real importance, however, lies in the repercussions of the alliance on the subsequent policies of the two victorious powers, Britain and France. This study examines the impact of Rapallo on British foreign policy between 1922 and 1934, when the German-Soviet relationship had virtually ended. The "ghost of Rapallo" is the central theme of this story, as ever since the treaty's conclusion Rapallo has been a byword for Soviet-German secret and potentially dangerous collaboration. This book describes how the British viewed the Rapallo co-operation, how they dealt with this special relationship, and how the lingering memory of Rapallo affected British policy for decades to come. While examining a particular aspect of international relations it throws additional light on broader topics of European relations in the 1920s and early 1930s. Dr STEPHANIE SALZMANN completed her PhD at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.