The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years

Thanks to the peaceful resolution of the Cold War, massive archives of Soviet material have become accessible to the serious historian. One of which is the author. He takes us into the Soviet Union and the heart of the Kremlin, in the early years of the Cold War, till Stalin's death. If you are conversant with Cold War from the American vantage (perhaps you lived through it?), then the book can be gripping reading. A parallel universe, from the Kremlin looking out and perceiving a hostile world. To be sure, given the searing Soviet experience during World War 2, a certain level of paranoia might be expected and justified. The events Mastny described, pulled from Soviet documents, outline a weird worldview. It was on this basis that Stalin acted as he did, during the Berlin blockade and the Korean War. American historians have at times criticised Truman and Eisenhower for some of their actions, based on these presidents' imperfect knowledge of world events. This book tells that the other side suffered from far worse distortions.