ABSTRACT

This chapter examines Stalin's contribution to and impact on Russian and world events in the first half of the twentieth century. The terror was not the only item on Stalin's agenda in the 1930s. It was not even the one on which he spent the most time. As the 1930s progressed, the Soviet Union was drawn deeper into international relations. Although the main clash between Germany and the USSR did not begin until June 1941, it is often overlooked that Soviet military forces were engaging the Axis enemy much earlier. Economic and military statistics underline the USSR's turn towards a war footing at this time. From 1936, a surrogate European war for and against Fascism was being fought in Spain by regular troops from Spain, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Soviet Union and international volunteers, mostly but not exclusively on the anti-fascist side, from the United States, Britain, France, Ireland and from among left-wing exiles from Germany and Italy.