: 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 purges allowed Stalin to replace the old Bolshevik guard with a new elite of "young strivers" completely dependent on him for their status. Geopolitics and the "Waiting" for Hitler Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941
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. Geopolitics and the "Waiting" for Hitler Stalin: Waiting
: Nearly a million people were executed, including the top military brass and cultural elite. Stalin’s primary goal in 1929 was to force
Stalin’s primary goal in 1929 was to force a backward peasant economy into "socialist modernity". This was achieved through two brutal, simultaneous campaigns: