| Descript |
xvii, 350 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Note |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
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Introduction: A Faustian Bargain -- Part I: Sowing the Wind -- The Bolsheviks’ Army -- Revolution and Reaction -- The Treaty of Versailles -- The Polish-Bolshevik War -- The Corporate Program -- The Road to Rapallo -- Poison Gas -- Coups and Countermeasures -- The Frunze Era -- Command of the Air -- The Wooden Titan -- New Faces -- Chemist Gypsies -- The Junkers Scandal -- Resetting Relations -- The Lohmann Scandal -- The Tanks Arrive -- Winter of Crisis -- Machines of the Future -- Yellow Cross -- Hunger -- Schleicher -- Rearmament -- Part II: Reaping the Whirlwind -- The End of an Era -- Enemies Again -- Long Knives -- The End of Versailles -- Terror -- The Technological Window -- Purges and Panic -- Stormclouds -- Fulfillment -- Uneasy Allies -- Blitzkrieg -- Whirlwind -- Conclusion: A Faustian Price |
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When Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, launching World War Two, its military might was literally overwhelming. The Luftwaffe bombed towns and cities across the country; fifty divisions of the Wehrmacht crossed the border. Yet only two decades earlier, at the end of World War One, Germany had been an utterly and abjectly defeated military power. Foreign troops occupied its industrial heartland and the Treaty of Versailles had reduced its vaunted army to a fraction of its size, banning it from developing new military technologies. When Hitler came to power in 1933, these strictures were still in effect. By 1939, however, he had at his disposal a fighting force of 4.2 million men, armed with the most advanced weapons in the world. How could this seemingly miraculous turnaround have happened? As Ian Ona Johnson establishes beyond question in Faustian Bargain, the answer lies in Soviet Russia. Beginning in the years immediately after the First World War and continuing for more than a decade, the German military and the Soviet Union, despite having been bitter enemies, entered into a partnership designed to overturn the order in Europe. Centering on economic and military co-operation, the arrangement led to the establishment of a network of military bases and industrial facilities on Soviet soil, away from the oversight established by Versailles. Through their alliance, which continued for over a decade, Germany gained the space to rebuild its army. In return, the Soviet Union received vital military, technological, and economic assistance. Both became military powers capable of mass destruction -- one that was eventually directed against the other. Drawing from archives in five countries, including new collections of declassified Russian documents, Faustian Bargain offers the most authoritative exploration to date of this secret pact and its cataclysmic results. -- dust jacket |
| Link |
Online version: Johnson, Ian Ona, Faustian bargain
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] 9780190675172
(DLC) 2021008944
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| Subject |
Soviet Union -- Military relations -- Germany
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Germany -- Military relations -- Soviet Union
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Soviet Union -- History, Military
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Germany -- History, Military -- 20th century
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| Alt Title |
Soviet-German military cooperation in the interwar period |
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