Deadly Embrace: Hitler, Stalin and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939-1941

by Anthony Read, David Fisher

Studies two powerful dictators maneuvering for advantage as they prepared for their fight to the death

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Germany, Russia, Soviet Union

687 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Anthony "Tony" Read (born 21 April 1935) was a British script editor, television writer and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, although he occasionally contributed to televised productions until 1999. Starting in the 1980s, he launched a second career as a print author, concentrating largely on World War II histories. Since 2004 he regularly wrote prose fiction, mainly in the form of a revival of his popular 1983 television show, The Baker Street Boys.

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tremendous account of this startling time period between two of the twentieth centuries great purveyors of evil. The authors write well and at a very personal level, describing the key individuals involved (Molotov, Schulenberg, Ribbentrop - among others). Also recounted are the futile efforts of the British and French to reach some sort of accord with the Soviet Union. One gets the overall impression that Stalin was never interested in this approach from Britain and France - his priorities were the territories he could acquire through his agreements with other nations, as is well illustrated by the secret protocols of Nazi-Soviet Pact. The two dictatorships spoke the same language and understood each others understated intentions, as opposed to the negotiations with the democratic powers.

This book can be quite sardonic in tone, adding to its readability. Almost half of it is concerned with the events leading up to the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Also most of the focus is on the Soviet Union. The authors present the multi-faceted points of view of the participants - Britain, France, Italy, Poland, as well as the Soviet Union and Germany.

By signing the Pact the Soviet Union isolated herself further from the international community and tarnished her image by ruthlessly going to war with Finland. Ironically the Soviet Union tried negotiating with Finland, but did nothing of the sort when arbitrarily occupying Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Stalin and his country paid a terrible historical price for this.

This book is a brilliant narration of this crucial period and illustrates how dictatorships deal sordidly with each other.

[Hatuxka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most histories involving the Soviet Union are formulaic, attempting to attribute the most sinister motives to the leadership of the USSR in its dealings with Nazi Germany. There is always a massive amount of the story that is left out. This amounts to historically criminal historical dishonesty (yep, that's how I wrote it). This book exemplifies a genre that should have all its works recycled as waste paper-ground to pulp and used for childrens books, appropriate because the level of scholarship is inherently childish or juvenile. Instead of reading this, read 1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II by Michael Jabara Carley and his paper 'Only the USSR has... Clean Hands' : the Soviet Perspective on the Failure of Collective Security and the Collapse of Czechoslovakia, 1934-1938 in Diplomacy and Statecraft.

[gargamelscat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpectedly well written narrative history and very objectively balanced.

[Bill Baar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a big book, and written before the Russian archives opened and then closed again, but it filled in my historical void on the time between the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Germany's invasion of Russia. A lot was happening in those months, mostly talk, but happening nonetheless. The disinformation campaigns waged by allies, axis, and everyone else, was interesting history given our current concerns with disinformation. The practice's been going on a while.

[Philip Talmage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This great book details the amazing incompetence and double-dealing of the British leadership during those months prior to the outbreak of war.