The Nazi-Soviet War was the largest and most brutal theatre of the Second World War, fought between two of the most ruthless states ever to exist. Bringing together twenty-four of the most accomplished authors in both German and Soviet history, this Cambridge Companion provides the most authoritative, and yet highly accessible, guide to the conflict. Each chapter examines a key aspect of the war from war planning, the opposing forces and the campaigns to criminality and occupation, alliances, the home fronts and postwar legacies and myth-making. The authors demonstrate that the Nazi-Soviet war was both a conventional clash of arms in which millions of soldiers fought in titanic battles, but also a non-conventional war in which soldiers and security forces murdered countless non-combatants. It was a war of resources, industry, mobilisation, administration, and popular support, with implications that still drive European security debates today.
List of figures; List of contributors; Introduction David Stahel; Part I. Conceptions of War: 1. German-Soviet relations and military collaboration in the inter-war period Ian Ona Johnson; 2. Political thinking and strategic planning for Hitler's lebensraum in the east Ben Shepherd; 3. Stalin's political delusions and military preparations for war with Nazi Germany Hiroaki Kuromiya; Part II. Opposing Forces: 4. The Ostheer: leadership, command, motivation and experience Jeff Rutherford and David Harrisville; 5. The Red Army: leadership and command Alexander Hill; 6. The Red Army: motivation and experience Roger Reese; Part III. Campaigns: 7. Operation Barbarossa, 1941 David Stahel; 8. Stalingrad and the eastern Front, 1942 Adrian E. Wettstein; 9. Kursk, 1943 Roman Töppel; 10. The Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1944 Evan Mawdsley; 11. Operation Bagration, 1944 David R. Stone; 12. The soviet conquest and occupation of Germany, 1945 Alexander Statiev; Part IV. Criminality and Occupation: 13. German occupation and mass murder in the east, 1941–1944 Alex J. Kay; 14. Soviet crimes at times of war, 1941–1945 Mark Edele; Part V. Home Fronts: 15. The German home front Bastiaan Willems; 16. The soviet war effort Wendy Z. Goldman; Part VI. Comrades in Arms: 17. Germany and the axis in the east Oleg Beyda, Grant T. Harward, Richard Carrier and Henrik Meinander; 18. The big three and the eastern front Geoffery Roberts; Part VII. Post-War Legacies and Myth Making: 19. Germany's selective memory of the eastern front Jörg Echternkamp; 20. The politics of war memory in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia Jonathan Brunstedt; A guide to further reading; Index.
David Stahel is Associate Professor of History at the University of New South Wales. He has authored ten previous works about aspects of the Nazi-Soviet War, including Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East (2009), Joining Hitler's Crusade (2016), Retreat from Moscow (2019) and Hitler's Panzer's Generals (2023).
