Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books

245. E. Fischer, An Opposing Man, Allen Lane: London 1974 p.261.

246. Some readings may be found here: H. F. Scott & W. F. Scott (eds), The Soviet Art of War, Westview Press: Boulder CO 1982. Tukhachevsky and Svechin perished in the purges.

247. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, Dd.253–6, Op.11, Dd.494–9.

248. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, Dd.9, 80. The photocopy may be found in the Stalin collection in SSPL.

249. Artilleriya v Proshlom, Nastoyashchem i Budushchem, Voenizdat: Moscow 1925. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.380.

250. Urban, Stalinism, p.43.

251. On Leer: P. Von Wahlde, ‘A Pioneer of Russian Strategic Thought: G. A. Leer, 1929–1904’, Military Affairs (December 1971); D. A. Rich, The Tsar’s Colonels: Professionalism, Strategy, and Subversion in Late Imperial Russia, Harvard University Press: Cambridge MA 1998 pp.55–6; J. W. Steinberg, All The Tsar’s Men: Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898–1914, Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore 2010 pp.47–52.

252. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, Dd.108–11. Previously, the books belonged to Tsarist institutional libraries.

253. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.224, for Stalin’s markings of chapter one of Moltke’s book, and D.195, pp.264–81 for his marking of Ludendorff’s text.

254. Svechin’s key work is available in an English translation: A. A. Svechin, Strategy, East View Press: Minneapolis 1992. Svechin’s views were controversial, particularly his advocacy of preparations for a war of attrition that would wear the enemy down over time, as opposed to one of manoeuvre and the annihilation of enemy forces in decisive battles. In the 1920s and 1930s Svechin was criticised by a number of reviewers and discussants who advocated the latter strategy. Stalin’s marked copy of the first edition of Svechin’s history of military art may be found here: RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, Dd.311–12. His copy of Svechin’s strategy book, together with a later edition of the military art history, is in the Stalin collection in SSPL.

255. Ibid., D.94, pp.v, vii, viii for Stalin’s markings. Stalin had another, unmarked, copy of On War. This may be found in the SSPL Stalin collection.

256. Ibid., p.35 of the book.

257. G. Roberts, Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953, Yale University Press: London & New Haven 2006 p.110.

258. O. Rzheshevsky, ‘Shaposhnikov’ in H. Shukman (ed.), Stalin’s Generals, Phoenix Press: London 1997.

259. The general sections of the three volumes of Mozg Armii were republished in 1974 and reprinted in 1982: B. M. Shaposhnikov, Vospominaniya [i] Voenno-Nauchnye Trudy, Voenizdat: Moscow 1982. The volume also contains Shaposhnikov’s memoir of his early life. Some extracts from Mozg Armii in English may be found in Scott & Scott, The Soviet Art of War, pp.46–50.

260. Shaposhnikov, Vospominaniya, p.507.

261. G. K. Zhukov, Vospominaniya i Razmyshleniya, vol.1, Novosti: Moscow 1990 p.367.

262. Na Prieme Stalina, Novyi Khronograf: Moscow 2008 pp.337–40.

263. M. Bragin, Polkovodets Kutuzov, Molodaya Gvardiya: Moscow 1941. An English translation called Field Marshal Kutuzov was published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow 1944.

264. Talking to Stalin in August 1942, Churchill remarked that his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough had put an end to the menace to freedom posed by the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). In response, Stalin said that Wellington was the greater British general because he had defeated Napoleon. Churchill’s interpreter, Major Birse, recalled that Stalin ‘then proceeded to exhibit his knowledge of history by reference to Wellington’s invasion of Spain . . . quoting chapter and verse with regard to some of the battles. I imagine that he had made a special study of the Napoleonic wars, which in many respects paralleled the one then in progress’ (A. H. Birse, Memoirs of an Interpreter, Michael Joseph: London 1967 pp.103).

265. ‘Zapis’ Besedy I. V. Stalina s Otvetstvennymi Redaktorami Zhurnalov “Voennaya Mysl’” i “Voennyi Vestnik”, 5 Marta 1945 goda’, Voenno-Istoricheskii Zhurnal, 3 (2004) pp.3–4.

266. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.25.

267. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/harrima1. Accessed 4 August 2021.