Supported in large part by evidence released after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this book follows the career of the Red Army from its birth in 1918 as the designated vanguard of world revolution to its affiliation in 1941 with 'the citadel of capitalism', the United States. Effectiveness of leadership and military doctrine are particular concerns here, and Josef Stalin is the dominant personality.
On the basis of the Russian Civil War (1918-20), the Red Army began to bill itself as 'an army of a new type', inherently superior to all others. However, in late 1920, the Poles trounce it...

These extraordinary memoirs written by German Field-Marshal Wilhelm keitel (1882-1946) in the six weeks before he was hung in Nuremberg for war crimes offers readers an unparalleled insider's view of the blitzkrieg against Poland, the conquest of France, and the brutal campaign against the Soviet Union. Most startling is his account of the final eighteen days of the Thrid Reich, which he personally directed."