This volume begins with an investigation of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. It draws upon eye-witness German accounts of what occurred, and supplements these with German archival and detailed Soviet materials. The Soviet government has released extensive amounts of formerly classified archival materials from the period. This material has been incorporated into the maps and text.

This work uses Russian archival and previously classified secondary sources to document the experience of the Red Army in conflict with Finland. Van Dyke examines the diplomatic, organizational and social aspects of the Soviet strategic culture by first exploring the Leninist interpretation of violence in international relations, and how this legacy influenced Stalin in his use of diplomacy and threat of force to enhance the Soviet Union's forward defence and to address the Baltic problem in 1939. He documents the Red Army's poor battlefield performances and looks at how it relearned the...

In 1994, the mountain territory of Chechnya was the target of the largest military campaign staged on Russian soil since World War II. In 1996, the Kremlin eventually ordered its 40,000 strong troops to withdraw from what had been a savage conflict with the Chechen guerillas. This book charts the bitter history between Russia and the Chechens and explains why the war took place. Points are raised about the nature of Soviet politics and army and the successes and failures of the transition from Soviet to post-Soviet political values.