ABSTRACT
From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War Sergey M. Shtemenko served in the Operations Directorate of the General Staff after 1943 as its chief. Beginning in the late 1960s Soviet spokesmen attempted to dispel ideas that the military leadership during the Great Patriotic War had been less than perfect or that Stalin had been incompetent at any time in his wartime leadership role. General Shtemenko's books on the Soviet General Staff during that war, published both in Russian and other languages, sought to present this view. Such accusations, according to Shtemenko, "usually came from non-military people." He claimed that Soviet military doctrine and strategy worked well during the war and provided a sound basis for future development. Shtemenko commented that it was a misfortune that "on the eve of the war we were deprived of many of our experienced military leaders."
