The Chief Culprit: Stalin's Grand Design to Start World War II

by Viktor Suvorov

Book Overview

Bestselling author Victor Suvorov probes newly released Soviet documents and reevaluates existing material to analyze Stalin's strategic design to conquer Europe and the reasons behind his controversial support for Nazi Germany. A former Soviet army intelligence officer, the author explains that Stalin's strategy leading up to World War II grew from Vladimir Lenin's belief that if World War I did not ignite the worldwide Communist revolution, then...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591148065
• ISBN13: 9781591148067
• Release Date: March 2013
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Essential in combination with A.J.P. Taylor's "Origins of the Second World War"

For years I have said that anyone who hasn't read (and internalized) A.J.P. Taylor's "Origins of the Second World War" does not even begin to understand the real story. Now I would add this book. You MUST read this (as well as Taylor) to understand the origins of the war. Suvorov does have weaknesses. He does not understand German domestic politics of the era. But that is not important because what he is giving us is insight into Soviet domestic politics which even Taylor did not give us. (No blame to Taylor, he had no access to Suvorov's sources.) But if you are a believer in the "good war" you won't like this book any better than Taylor. Go back, re-read "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and be happy in your dream world.

A truly eye-opening book (at least for me)

This book is one of the most eye-opening on the subject of World War II I've read. The author, trained as an intelligence analyst, offers a mountain of carefully footnoted evidence that the Red Army was fully mobilized and putting the final preparations in place to roll across Europe at the time the Germans struck in 1941. He also offers ample evidence that Stalin had a hand (and an interest) in seeing Hitler come to power. The Stalin's reasoning in a nutshell went like this: 1) Bolshevik revolution must sweep across Europe. 2) Revolution occurs most readily when there is widespread misery 3) War is the most reliable producer of widespread misery 4) Hitler's rise will be the catalyst for a second war to engulf Europe. The plan was to have Germany, Britain and France become embroiled in war, and thereby exhaust each other. Then, the Red Army would sweep across those countries and many more with fresh troops and equipment. And Stalin had almost unfathomable quantities of both. Although it may not have been their motive, the reader concludes that by launching their preemptive strike, the Germans fell on a grenade that would otherwise have killed all of Western Europe. I offer four brief quotations from the book to pique your interest. Referring to the years before the war, Suvorov wrote: "Hitler, according to Stalin's plans, was supposed to crush Europe, and then Stalin, with a surprise attack, would 'liberate' it from Hitler. In the name of that goal, German tankers and pilots were trained in the Soviet Union, and Stalin brought Hitler to power. But Hitler ruined Stalin's plans." Referring to the days immediately after the invasion, he wrote, "Stalin realized he could not fix anything. The socialist country was capable of crushing others, but couldn't compete with other countries in peacetime. From June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union was destined for demise. Sooner or later, it was bound to collapse. It could survive only by consuming everything around it....Therefore, Stalin's main idea was to destroy the capitalism surrounding the Soviet Union...victory was only possible on a global scale...Hitler delivered a suicidal but lethal attack on Communism. No matter how events unfolded afterward, Stalin could no longer conquer the whole world. Referring to the aftermath of the war, he wrote, "In 1945, tens of millions of square kilometers of territory, occupied by millions of people, lay at Stalin's feet. But Stalin at that time did not have the resources to control all of his conquests...The best part of the male population of the Soviet Union perished in the war against Germany. After the war, the USSR was supposed to have conducted a population census and calculated its war losses. But Stalin did not conduct a census. It was only conducted fourteen years after the war, when Stalin was dead. 'The decision not to count all the citizens until 1959 was founded on a desire not to draw attention to the huge unjustified human losses during the war period

Suvorov is absolutely brilliant

I have read Suvorov's books. But this one is exceptionally brilliant,for it contains some stunning facts and disclosures which kept me spellbound. For me every para, every page ,every chapter of this book were a revelation. Military buffs you will never regret exploring it ; if not , you have missed something Firstly,author impugns the established wisdom on World War II Soviet Union was an innocent victim of Nazi aggression. Suvorov argues Stalin hatched plans to invade Germany. Exploiting German preoccupation in the West ,he started massing troops along the border as a prelude to launching a war of liberation. Soviet dictator succeeded in entangling Nazi Germany in a war with Western democracies. Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact and carve-up of Poland was a step in this direction. Stalin had aggressive intentions and Suvorov has adduced arguments buttressing this view. If Red Army planned a defensive war they should have entrenched behind a web of obstacles ,entanglements. This would have slowed an invading force giving sufficient room for a defending army to launch a counter-strike;for instance, Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Instead,author argues, Soviets did things to the contrary.Buffer space was demolished as a result nation came to share a common border with Nazi Germany.Bridges across rivers Bug,Vistula were kept intact.while Red Army erected supply dumps,ammunition depots,airbases closer to the border. What were they for? Sounds shocking. Author dwells on the nature of Soviet troop deployment.Immense concentration of forces in narrow strips of land which wedged deep into enemy territory. For a nation planning a defensive war this tantamount to suicide. Of particular significance is massing of Soviet forces along the Lvov bulge.Thrust from here along the north western axis toward Baltic coast would have severed Wehrmacht from its supply bases in Germany apart from depriving it of precious oil from Ploeisti in Romania.A maneuver of unprecedented strategic beauty ,a lethal blow which would have destroyed Germany in one shot.Unfortunately for Stalin ,Hitler guessed axe was about to fall upon his neck and swiftly acted to prevent it. Therefore Field Marshal Keitel's comments that Soviets planned a first strike and Germans preempted it stands vindicated. Suvorov debunks the argument the Red army was an ill-trained,ill-equipped ,poorly-led rabble.Author argues Red Army was primarily trained for offensive and capable of carrying war into enemy territory. Most striking comment is about winter war with Finland which author argues Red army won but was mistakenly assessed by the West. Also details about Soviet TB-7 strategic bomber were terrific. Further author has made narration lively by using metaphors. I liked Suvorov's didactic, simple ,clear writing. I take this opportunity to appeal to publishers kindly make Suvorov's other titles available in English. The book was an eye-opener to me. For years Soviet propaganda tried to c

The Great Conspiracy

The core of Suvorov's argument is that there was a giant Communist conspiracy in Europe in the 1930s and early 40s to enable the Soviet Union to smash its way into the West and fulfil its objective of world revolution. This book goes much further than 'Icebreaker' to explain Stalin's behaviour towards Hitler in the period leading up to the start of the Russo-German war in June 1941. Stalin studied Nazi ideology and Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf' in considerable detail. He always knew Hitler would attack him, so he set out to prepare the Soviet Union for war - not just any war, but a total, global war. The only thing that Stalin was not expecting was a German attack in 1941; he believed Hitler would not attack while the UK was still in the war. But Stalin's foresight ensured that even after suffering huge defeats in the Western USSR, he could continue the war perfectly well, in the knowledge that most of the heavy production factories were well established in the Urals. For Stalin, Germany was the gateway to the West. He needed to smash it in order to spread his ideology to Western Europe and beyond. After reading this book it becomes pretty clear that Hitler not only had no choice but to invade the USSR, but that his failure to defeat Britain in 1940 guaranteed his defeat.

Kudos to Suvorov

Viktor Suvorov in his book Ice Breaker and his new work The Chief Culprit gives the real history behind World War II in Europe. He moves the whole question beyond the wooden typical explanation of the Germano-Soviet conflict into a titanic conflict for the survival of Europe against massive odds. Joseph Stalin brutalized the Russian people to produce the largest military machine the world has ever seen for one purpose - World Revolution. In the book Hitler's Stooge, Soviet figures are revealed that show Soviet Communists were responsible for the deaths of 132 million people of the Soviet Union from 1917-1989. This was the human cost of the Soviet build up. The typical history is that Russia was backward, their equipment poor, and the army badly trained. Suvorov goes into excruciating detail about the high quality and astronomical quantity of Soviet weaponry. And, of course, of Stalin's long term plan to invade and conquer Europe in the summer of 1941 - so that Europeans could also enjoy the wonderful benefits of the Gulag. The only problem with the book is that the print is quite small, and may be a problem for some people. It should have been a larger size for easier readability. It is hoped that the success of this book will encourage the author to have his other works upon the subject translated into English to further flesh out the history and understanding of Stalin's plan. This is history at its best. That the world dodged the bullet of World Revolution by less than 2 weeks in 1941 is a revelation deserving of our attention. This is a definite "must read" for everyone interested in the background of World War II, and of Stalin and his dream.