Publisher Description

This work focuses on Winston Churchill's changing attitudes towards the Soviet Union. In the first four decades after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he oscillated in a seemingly bewildering fashion between enmity and apparent friendship with the Soviets. Taking the Bolshevik Revolution as its starting point, this is a study of Churchill's relationship with the USSR until his retirement in 1955. Initially Churchill achieved a high profile as a tireless advocate of Allied intervention in Russia to eliminate the Bolshevik regime; by the late 1930s he was urging Britain to forge a Grand Alliance with the Soviets against Nazi Germany; during the winter of 1939-40, he was apparently willing to see Great Britain come to the assistance of Finland in its war with the Soviet Union; in June 1941 he eagerly embraced the Soviet Union as a worthy ally against Nazi Germany; after the latter's defeat he rapidly moved to proposing a common Anglo-American front against the Soviet Union and global communism. How can we understand this Churchillian enigma? How was it that Churchill's relationship with the Soviet Union was so inconsistent?

Flap

In the already vast literature on Churchill, no single work has focused on his changing attitude towards the Soviet Union. This is the first project to isolate just one major theme in Churchill's lifeExplores whether or not Churchill was consistent through forty years and examines the possibility that perceptions of domestic political advantage may have shaped his course more than high-monded and disinterested evaluations of evolving Soviet intentions and capabilitiesChurchill still arouses a great deal of general interest, and a work which challenges a number of preconceptions, as this book does, will undoubtedly appeal to the general readerA clearly argued, revisionist study of Churchill's views about and dealings with the Soviet Union. It will be part of the growing historical literature that seeks to reassess Churchill.

Author Biography

David Carlton is Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Warwick

Table of Contents

1. Crusading for intervention, 1917-1920
2. Irreconcilable adversary, 1921-1933
3. Guarded rapprochement, 1934-1939
4. Keeping in step with public opinion?, 1939-1941
5. Allied with Hell, 1942-1945
6. Preaching confrontation, 1945-1949
7. Summitry and the primacy of domestic politics, 1950-1955

Long Description

This work focuses on Winston Churchill's changing attitudes towards the Soviet Union. In the first four decades after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he oscillated in a seemingly bewildering fashion between enmity and apparent friendship with the Soviets. Taking the Bolshevik Revolution as its starting point, this is a study of Churchill's relationship with the USSR until his retirement in 1955. Initially Churchill achieved a high profile as a tireless advocate of Allied intervention in Russia to eliminate the Bolshevik regime; by the late 1930s he was urging Britain to forge a Grand Alliance with the Soviets against Nazi Germany; during the winter of 1939-40, he was apparently willing to see Great Britain come to the assistance of Finland in its war with the Soviet Union; in June 1941 he eagerly embraced the Soviet Union as a worthy ally against Nazi Germany; after the latter's defeat he rapidly moved to proposing a common Anglo-American front against the Soviet Union and global communism. How can we understand this Churchillian enigma? How was it that Churchill's relationship with the Soviet Union was so inconsistent?

Description for Sales People

In the already vast literature on Churchill, no single work has focused on his changing attitude towards the Soviet Union. This is the first project to isolate just one major theme in Churchill's lifeExplores whether or not Churchill was consistent through forty years and examines the possibility that perceptions of domestic political advantage may have shaped his course more than high-monded and disinterested evaluations of evolving Soviet intentions and capabilitiesChurchill still arouses a great deal of general interest, and a work which challenges a number of preconceptions, as this book does, will undoubtedly appeal to the general readerA clearly argued, revisionist study of Churchill's views about and dealings with the Soviet Union. It will be part of the growing historical literature that seeks to reassess Churchill.

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