What Stalin Knew : The Enigma of Barbarossa

by David E. Murphy

• ISBN13: 9780300119817
• ISBN10: 030011981X
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2006-12-01
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This extensively researched book illuminates many of the enigmas that have surrounded the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, offering keen insights into Stalin's thinking and the reasons for his catastrophic blunder. "If, after the war, the Soviet Union had somehow been capable of producing an official inquiry into the catastrophe of 6/22comparable in its mandate to the 9/11 commission hereits report might have read a little like [this book]. . . . Murphy brings to his subject both knowledge of Russian history and an insider's grasp of how intelligence is gathered, analyzed and usedor not."Niall Ferguson, New York Times Book Review "A fascinating and meticulously researched account of mistaken assumptions and errors of judgment that culminated in Hitler's invasion of Russia in June 1941. Never before has this fateful period been so fully documented."Henry A. Kissinger

Author Biography

David E. Murphy, now retired, was chief of CIA’s Berlin base from the early 1950s to 1961 and then became chief of Soviet operations at CIA headquarters in the U.S. He is coauthor of Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War, also published by Yale University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Sources	xi
Introduction: Stalin's Absolute Control, Misconceptions, and Disastrous Decisions	xv
Abbreviations and Acronyms	xxi
Stalin versus Hitler: Background	1	(6)
The Outspoken General: Ivan Iosifovich Proskurov	7	(7)
Proskurov Sets Stalin Straight	14	(15)
Soviet Borders Move Westward	29	(18)
The Finns Fight: Proskurov Made a Scapegoat	47	(15)
Soviet Military Intelligence Residencies in Western Europe	62	(9)
Soviet Military Intelligence Residencies in Eastern Europe	71	(13)
Who Were You, Dr. Sorge? Stalin Never Heard of You.	84	(7)
NKVD Foreign Intelligence	91	(6)
Fitin's Recruited Spies	97	(11)
Listening to the Enemy	108	(9)
Working on the Railroad	117	(7)
The Border Troops Knew	124	(13)
Proskurov Is Fired	137	(8)
Golikov and Operation Sea Lion	145	(17)
``We Do Not Fire on German Aircraft in Peacetime''	162	(11)
German Deception: Why Did Stalin Believe It?	173	(12)
Secret Letters	185	(7)
The Purges Revived	192	(12)
On the Eve	204	(12)
A Summer of Torture	216	(16)
The Final Reckoning	232	(13)
Conclusion: Will the Future Be a Repeat of the Past?	245	(8)
Appendix 1: Organization and Functions of Soviet Military Intelligence	253	(3)
Appendix 2: Hitler's Letters to Stalin	256	(3)
Appendix 3: Those Executed without Trial on October 28, 1941	259	(2)
Appendix 4: Chronology of Agent Reporting	261	(3)
Glossary of Spies and Their Masters	264	(11)
Notes	275	(26)
Index	301