ePub Vocation and the Politics of Work: Popular Theology in a Consumer Culture by Jeffrey Scholes in History

Description

On June 22; 1941; just less than two years after signing the Nazi-Soviet Agreements; Adolf Hitler's German army invaded the Soviet Union. The attack hardly came as a surprise to Josef Stalin; in fact; history has long held that Stalin spent the two intervening years building up his defenses against a Nazi attack. With the gradual declassifying of former Soviet documents; though; historians are learning more and more about Stalin's grand plan during the years 1939-1941.Longtime Soviet expert Albert L. Weeks has studied the newly-released information and come to a different conclusion about the Soviet Union's pre-war buildup―it was not precaution against German invasion at all. In fact; Weeks argues; the evidence now suggests Soviet mobilization was aimed at an eventual invasion of Nazi Germany. The Soviets were quietly biding their time between 1939 and 1941; allowing the capitalist powers to destroy one another; all the while preparing for their own Westward march. Stalin; Weeks shows; wasn't waiting for a Nazi attack―Hitler simply beat him to the punch.