Stalin as a War Leader

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Stalin as a war leader
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Refurbishing
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Introduction
The Great Patriotic War was clearly a watershed moment in Soviet history and Josef
Stalin played a major role as a war leader during the Great Patriotic War. Still, Western
historiography has largely neglected Stalinism and the historical archives show a mixed
perception about the Soviet dictator. Although played a central role during the Great Patriotic
War and was seen as a war hero, there are questions regarding the failed military policies of the
Soviet leader and several unanswered questions. Historians often debate on these questions and
look for answers in the publications, biographies and books from the nineties as well as from
those written recently. The purpose of this essay is to understand how have historians assessed
Stalin as a war leader.
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was born as Ioseb Jughashvili in Gori. He went to the
Orthodox seminary in Tbilisi, and later gave up his education to become a pro revolutionary for
the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (van Ree 2017, p. 1). Stalin achieved little in
the first four decades of his life, but it changed for ever by the outbreak of war in 1914 and he
found himself a leading member of the new Bolshevik regime (Kotkin 2017). He seized the
chance to develop his own personal dictatorship. and as his personal dictatorship grew and so did
his obsession of Russia as a socialist great power. He belonged to the grassroots activists and
lived in Siberian exile from 1913 until1917. His country’s non-involvement in the Great Patriotic
War left a strong impact on his political intellectual and policies. He remained Soviet Union’s
undisputed leader till his death in 1953. His advice to the communist parties abroad was not to
grab power in the absence of war and his foreign policies focused on inducing war among the
capitalist powers in order to progress conditions for Soviet expansion (van Ree 2017, p. 2).

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One of the major events of the 20th century was the German invasion of the Soviet Union
in 1941. It later changed the Second World War and progressed to a Cold War that saw Soviet
Union domination over the Eastern Europe for almost half the century (Steury 2005). Although
Nazis bear the main responsibility, but the Soviet regime too must partly shoulder the blame. The
historiography of World War II and the role of Stalin during the Great Patriotic War has been
studied by different historians over the years. However, each of these historians seem to draw a
different conclusion about Stalin. For example, a study of Great Patriotic War by Roger
Reese finds fluctuating morale and motivation during the war and it was not
always Stalinism that figured as the major reason for people to fight or not.
Soviet patriotism and psychological factors played a role in the willingness to
risk the consequences of war. The main schools of the historiography of the
war show that people either rejected Stalinism or supported it (Reese 2011, p
12). The author concludes that there were many different reasons and rationalizations that
influenced the thinking people rather than just Stalinism alone. Soviet patriotism was real
and for many it did not equate with the Stalinist system.
Russian intellectuals equate Stalin with Hitler and Communism with fascism. Recent
social history of the Soviet Union gives a totalitarian model rather than the Stalinist reality.
Stalin was expert as micromanager and foreign affairs and security were top on his agenda
(Wolff 2011, p. 15). Cold War History carries articles by G.P. Murashko and A.F. Noskova that
offer conversation between Stalin and European leaders on territorial conflicts. For Stalin
nationalism was “created” or “imagined” as is apparent from his statement to the English
ambassador. He exhibits the same mendacious vein as he refers to the Ukrainians as “horrible
nationalists” and linked their attacks to Polish territorial gains (Wolff 2011, p. 5). When