For Hitler, 1929вђ“1941: Stalin: Waiting

Kotkin portrays the Great Terror not as a sign of madness, but as a calculated political tool. Stalin believed that in the event of an inevitable war, internal rivals—former comrades and military leaders—could become a "fifth column" for foreign enemies.

Stalin’s primary goal in 1929 was to force a backward peasant economy into "socialist modernity". This was achieved through two brutal, simultaneous campaigns: Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941

: Nearly a million people were executed, including the top military brass and cultural elite. Kotkin portrays the Great Terror not as a

: Stalin built over 9,000 industrial enterprises, transforming the USSR into a modern war machine. By the late 1930s, the Red Army was the best-armed force in the world, with tens of thousands of tanks and planes. The Great Terror (1936–1938) The Great Terror (1936–1938) In the second volume

In the second volume of his definitive biography, , historian Stephen Kotkin examines the decade where Joseph Stalin transitioned from a powerful dictator into a world-shaping despot. The narrative follows Stalin’s relentless "revolution from above," his internal purges, and the strategic chess match with Nazi Germany that culminated in the largest land invasion in history.