ABSTRACT

An objective and documentary history of the earliest origins and formative years of the Workers-Peasants Red Army from the Civil War to the initial disasters of the war with Germany, the Great Patriotic War, culminating in the "battle for Moscow" in November-December 1941.

chapter |21 pages

INTRODUCTION

part |1 pages

PART ONE The Revolutionary Military Command, 1918-1920

chapter II|28 pages

THE CREATION OF THE SOVIET MILITARY MACHINE

chapter IV|27 pages

BEFORE THE GATES OF WARSAW, 1920

part |1 pages

PART TWO Military Debates and Political Derisions, 1921-1926

part |1 pages

PART THREE Foreign Adventures and Strategic Priorities

part |1 pages

PART FOUR The Politics of Mechanisation

chapter XI|41 pages

THE REACTION TO THREATS FROM EAST AND WEST

chapter XII|38 pages

A BRIEF TRIUMPH, 1934-1935

chapter XIII|43 pages

PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS

part |1 pages

PART FIVE The Military Purge and the Reconstruction of the Command

chapter XIV|25 pages

THE KILLINGS, 1937

chapter XV|36 pages

EXEUNT OMNES ...

chapter XVI|52 pages

THE RACE WITH TIME, 1939-1940

part |1 pages

PART SIX The Beginning of the Ordeal, 1941

chapter XVII|63 pages

'WE ARE BEING FIRED ON. WHAT SHALL WE DO?'

chapter XVIII|42 pages

THE BATTLE FOR MOSCOW: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1941