Allied by War: THE DICTATOR WHO MISREAD HITLER

On 22nd June 1941, Hitler invades the Soviet Union. Stalin has dismissed repeated warnings. How did a man who saw enemies everywhere so disastrously misjudge the threat from Nazi Germany?

In the first of three episodes on Stalin, David Reynolds and Russell Barnes trace his rise from a Georgian seminary student to the Soviet Union’s absolute ruler. They examine the ruthless manoeuvring that eliminated his rivals, the human cost of forced industrialisation and the purges that weakened his army on the eve of war.

The Nazi–Soviet Pact in 1939 bought Stalin time and territory. But his strategy rested on assumptions that Hitler’s spectacular victories in 1940 overturned. Distrusting Britain and desperate to avoid provoking Germany, he struggled to recognise the danger gathering on his borders.

As invasion becomes catastrophe, the story follows Stalin’s retreat to his country house, exposing the vulnerability of a state built around one man.

Next time: Stalin finds his voice and the Soviet fightback begins.

Follow Creating History for the complete 13-part Allied by War series. A ClearStory production.