Was WWII is inevitable? How did fascism gain its power in Europe? Did the USSR support the rise of Hitler"s Wermacht? Why did the soviet policy of collective security in the 1930s fail? Why was the Red Army crushed in the summer of 1941? What is Stalin"s share in the success and failure of soviet foreign policy? This book, part of a series about Stalin, addresses these questions. The author is a well known historian.