Mark Edele is Professor and Hansen Chair in History at University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Soviet Union: A Short History (2019), Stalin's Defectors: How Red Army Soldiers became Hitler's Collaborators, 1941-1945 (2017) and Stalinist Society, 1928-1953 (2011), amongst others.

• List of IllustrationsList of MapsList of Tables and ChartsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Stalinism at War, 1937-491. Preparing for War2. The War begins in the East, 1937-393. War in the West, 1939-404. Armageddon, 1941-425. Recovery, 1941-426. Triumph, 1943-457. War of Ideologies8. The War after the War, 1944-499. Impact and AftermathAppendix: MapsNotesIndex

A vividly written account of the conflict that comes equipped with a raft of compelling yet counterintuitive conclusions on the conflict… It’s a refreshing break with tradition given — as Edele is careful to note — the vast numbers who fought and died in these otherwise neglected theaters of conflict… Edele writes with a lively elegance that makes his narrative a genuine pleasure to read. His reluctance to get bogged down in the minutiae of war or to take sides in obscure historiographical debates keeps the text fresh and readable… What [the chapters] deliver is the richly human story of an inhuman conflict, masterfully told and compelling reinterpreted.