Key point: It belonged in a different era. A Mediterranean nation beset by military coup and civil war. A savage struggle marked by atrocities and fanaticism. Proxy war waged by outside nations ...

Stalin’s War: A New History of WWII, by Sean McMeekin (Basic Books: 2021), 864 pages. The peoples of the Russian Federation—despite the imperishable cynicism that so many express on matters ...

In June 1945, British planners warned that any Allied strike on the Soviet Union would explode into total war. Operation Unthinkable was abandoned, but Churchill never stopped fearing Stalin’s growing ...

The Battle of Stalingrad, with its five months of fierce fighting, began exactly 80 years ago, on Aug. 23, 1942. An estimated 750,000 Soviets died defending the city, delivering an enormous blow to ...